Class 

Book 

(bpyiigtitN 




CDKRIGHT DEPOSE 



THE DARKER DRINK 



THE DARKER DRINK 



BY 

MARIETTA MINNIGERODE ANDREWS 
Author of "The Songs of a Mother," "Out 
of the Dust," "The Cross 
Triumphant" 




BOSTON 
RICHARD G. BADGER 

THE GORHAM PRESS 



Copyright, 1922, by Richard G. Badger 



All Rights Reserved 



-$ry 



^ * 
& 



©CI.A674685 

Made in the United States of America 



The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 

JUN22 72 



FOREWORD 

The automatist of the material in this little 
book and author of the accompanying narrative 
is a talented Virginian, grand-daughter of the 
distinguished Episcopal clergyman, Dr. Minni- 
gerode, who was Jefferson Davis' pastor during 
the Civil War. 

Either by means of peculiar mechanisms she 
has been able to unlock the reserve forces of her 
own soul, or she has received consolatory and 
stimulating messages from the other side of the 
veil. At any rate, she has been distinctly helped 
to sustain her affliction and to carry on the prac- 
tical business of living, and she thinks that others, 
especially the sorrowing and the despondent, may 
be helped by what has benefited her. This is 
her only motive in publishing. 

Such material, which exists in abundance, is a 
refutation of a strangely frequent charge, for it 
distinctly is not "twaddle;" and if as others 
strangely assert, such deliverances come only 
from demons, then the demons must have become 
converted, for this writing, as in most other cases, 

3 



4 Foreword 

is distinctly ethical. The language is simple, but 
often beautiful in its simplicity. 

I am not in a position to pronounce upon the 
evidential value of the material here offered. 
There are impressive incidents which the reader 
will discover for himself. It is the excess of 
caution which must characterize the scientific in- 
vestigator not so placed as to enable him to test 
for himself every link in the chain, that forbids 
me to say more. 

I heartily commend the printing of this ma- 
terial exactly as it was received without editing 
its language or even inserting punctuation marks. 
This is an assurance that Mrs. Andrews has dealt 
faithfully and intelligently with all aspects of the 
phenomena of which she has been the subject. 
(Signed) Walter Franklin Prince 

Principal Research Officer of the 
American Society for Psychical Research 



CONTENTS 
PART I 

CHAPTER PAGB 

I Quench Not the Spirit 13 

II The Darker Drink? 20 

III My First Experience in Automatic 

Writing 28 

IV The Letters of Elizabeth .... 38 
V A Visit to Mrs. Warneke 46 



PART II 

VI A Review of the Child's Earthly Life 53 

VII Her Messages. Messages of William 
Miles. Messages of Thomas Jeffer- 
son 71 



INTRODUCTION 

Of all great themes that invite the human mind 
to speculation — maternity, war, traffic, labor, 
life, death — perhaps the last, because it is fraught 
with so much mystery, is the most alluring. 
Death — or life, for they are one and interchange- 
able — has been the subject of the deepest emotion 
and the highest poetry, confined to no age and no 
religion, but to the soul of man since he had a 
soul, unspeakably dear. The imagination is 
charmed, the curiosity is tantalized, the devo- 
tional sense is quickened, whenever we think of 
death. Increased experience of life brings a fuller 
comprehension of death. Death is the great ad- 
venture, the most misunderstood of all expe- 
riences. Rebellion, bitterness, physical pain, re- 
gret, weakness, disillusion, dissolution, belong to 
life — not to death. These are the final stages 
of life, prior to the change called death, and they 
are expressions of the resistance made by life to 
the impending transformation. Death is progress 
and promotion — death is advancement. Omar 
Khayyam, self-accused of materialism, understood 
this, voicing his faith many times, notwithstanding 

7 



8 Introduction 

\ the contradictory ideas in his great drinking song: 
j . Omar never forgot the jsouljudg of things, only 
when it puzzled him, he repudiated it — ever re- 
turning to it, testifying repeatedly to his faith — 
for our comfort, suggesting that we too should 
know no fear — 

So when the angel of the Darker Drink 
At last shall find you by the river's brink, 
And offering his cup, invite your soul 
Forth to your lips, to quaff you shall not shrink. 

Shelley, self-accused as an atheist, understood 
this, voicing his faith in lines as immortal as their 
theme : 

Peace ! Peace ! He is not dead, he doth not sleep — 

He hath awakened from the dream of life — 

'T is we who, lost in stormy visions, keep 

With phantoms an imaginary strife, 

And in mad trance strike with the spirit's knife 

Invulnerable nothings — 

And to go on, summing up that life beyond, 
comparing it to the life which the spirit has left 
behind it — 

He hath out-soared the darkness of our night, 
Envy and calumny and hate and pain, 
And that unrest which men mis-call delight 
Can touch him not and torture not again. 
From the contagion of the world's slow stain 
He is secure — 

These testimonies are inspirations, and because 
they come to us from beautiful minds which, see- 



Introduction 9 

ing through a glass darkly, could not distinguish, 
and avowed themselves unbelievers, they are of 
great value. 

Death is the realization of our dreams. It is 
the fulfilment of our hopes. As an art student 
may through many years of study familiarize his 
mind with the masterpieces of the older world, 
learn to know the mannerisms of the masters, 
their distinguishing qualities, may project his im- 
agination into that far-off land and time and see 
the quaint streets in which they trod their daily 
ways, the dark-eyed, deep-chested women they 
used as types for their Madonnas, visualizing 
each striking personality with its own back- 
ground, setting together in his own mind all the 
details of that great life and age, informing him- 
self as to the character of the very landscape 
surrounding the locality, and come at last to visit 
the country and actually see the things he has 
only dreamed of, so we all move toward that 
spirit world. 

As that art student finds himself in familiar 
territory, so we find ourselves on leaving this 
home of our spiritual infancy, full of happy re- 
cognitions, familiar already with much in our sur- 
roundings, unabashed and fearless. It will come to 
us as a realization of much which we always knew 
and loved — in no strange country. So dear, so 



io Introduction 

easy, if we will not resist it — only a phase of our 
growth, a chapter in our long story of evolution. 
It is well that we should sometimes turn from 
the confusing questions of our present day to 
wander in less troubled realms — to contemplate 
the country which is our early destination — 
whither each one of us inevitably travels. To 
know something of it need not unfit us for what 
remains to be done here — far from it — we shall 
but win a sense of proportion and see the burdens 
and ambitions of the present in their relation to 
that greater destiny of which this life is but the 
first step. 



PART I 



THE DARKER DRINK 

CHAPTER I 

QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT 

"Leave the flesh to the fate it is fit for — the Spirit be 

thine! 1 
{Passage marked by Mary Lord in her copy of Browning.) 

Automatic writing as a means of communica- 
tion between the incarnate and the discarnate 
minds of men, between the seen and the unseen 
worlds, is not a subject for argument. Those 
who cannot believe cannot be argued into believ- 
ing, nor can the consolations and inspirations it 
affords be forced upon them. 

Each experimenter knows whether he acts in 
good faith, and that any deceit or pretence on his 
part robs himself, not only of the service which 
he might render to others, but of honor in his 
own eyes. 

In obedience to the divine suggestion "Ask and 
ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find," there 
has been vouchsafed to many a clear revelation 

13 



14 The Darker Drink? 

which they are in duty bound to transmit to 
others to the very limit of their power and op- 
portunities. 

It cannot be denied that with this gift there 
comes to some a temptation to increase the effect 
upon the minds of the credulous, or to attract 
attention to themselves, by supplementing the 
genuine with the make-believe, but the tolerance 
which is necessary in all things is necessary here 
too, that one may look through the extravagant 
and dishonest methods of charlatans to the under- 
lying and eternal truth. 

It may happen to almost any one as it has hap- 
pened in the case of the present witness, that the 
greatest sceptic becomes the most humble and 
grateful beneficiary, and that those who came 
to scoff remain to pray. A moment may arrive 
when a slight tingling sensation in the hand, re- 
sembling a faint electric shock or a twinge of 
neuritis, will signal, and then a pencil in the hand 
take on a strange, pulsating, sentient quality, as 
though not quite an inanimate thing. It may slip 
and jerk over the paper, leaving only illegible 
and apparently meaningless scribbling, but the 
all-important fact in the beginning is, not "What 
did it write," but "What moved it." 

Each experimenter knows if he moved it volun- 
tarily, and each one realizing that he did not 



Quench Not the Spirit 15 

move it himself knows that a force outside of his 
own did so. 

The illegible loops and scrawls may with prac- 
tice become fluent, as the instrument lends him- 
self more readily to the control; and messages 
will then be received of more or less significance 
according to the quality of the mind in control, 
and other circumstances of the case. Much is 
received that is trivial and common-place, much 
that is illuminating and profound. 

Unless we lend ourselves to it with dignity we 
cannot reasonably hope for noble results. Those 
who have experienced something of this delight- 
ful and stimulating revelation accept it in pro- 
found humbleness, and are filled with happiness 
when it is given in a larger measure to others 
than to themselves; there can be no rivalry in it 
since it is in no sense a personal achievement, and 
ambition enters into it not at all. It resembles 
more the mood in which one, lately parched with 
thirst, drinks deep, and gladly offers the cup to 
another. 

A careful reading of the Bible proves the fre- 
quency with which the whole course of sacred his- 
tory was changed because of divine interventions; 
manifestations and revelations no less astonish- 
ing than automatic writing. 

The book of Genesis contains in almost every 
chapter instances in which voices, apparitions, 



1 6 The Darker Drink? 

visions, dreams, premonitions and prophecies, 
made known the will of God and directed the 
energies of men into other channels. 

Moses wrote the Ten Commandments alone 
upon the mountain top, operating by an intelli- 
gence outside himself. Belshazzar saw the writ- 
ing on the wall — dread words of warning, writ 
by an unseen hand. 

Note in the first chapter of the Gospel of Mat- 
thew the instances of supernatural intervention 
— The Annunciation; the voice which warded off 
the suspicion and severity of Joseph, explaining 
the miracle of Mary's sacred mission; the dream 
which cautioned the wayfarers to turn another 
way, thus insuring the safety of the wondrous 
child. 

When Jesus, in the flush of his own pure youth, 
stooped down and wrote with his finger in the 
dust, turning his eyes from the self-righteous mob 
and the sinful woman, what did he write? It ap- 
pears to have been an automatic action, a respite 
from the clamor of tongues, a momentary escape 
from so vulgar a situation. None of the by- 
standers stopped to read that writing. Common 
in their sins, cheap in their righteousness, they 
saw no significance in that remarkable action. 

When Christ lifted his face to confront them 
he had found the answer — the prompt reply, the 
searching rebuke, the abundant forgiveness. 



Quench Not the Spirit 17 

Saint Paul's whole life was altered, the pro- 
cesses of his scholarly and disciplined intellect 
reversed, by a voice and a light, and the things 
that had been his animosities became in a mo- 
ment the ruling passions of his heart. So to-day, 
many beliefs and conceptions are overturned by 
messages received from mysterious and unseen 
sources. The conventional idea of death and of 
heaven are supplanted by a thought far more 
alluring and rational — death seems advancement, 
promotion, and too great a grief for those ex- 
panding souls becomes an act of selfishness. 

Peter, asleep and hungry on the house-tops, sees 
a vision and dreams a dream, and an orthodox 
snob in religion becomes a vigorous liberal demo- 
crat in matters of faith. 

These miracles were no more revealings of 
God's will than many things occurring now 
among us. 

An ecclesiastical organization is a close cor- 
poration, as careful as any stock company as to 
its protection, patent or copyright, and the hold- 
ing of its monopoly. It is openly in competition 
with its rivals, and not in sympathy with any 
revelation foreign to its own accepted, dogmas. 
There are political and commercial and profes- 
sional influences in church as in state affairs, and 
the master-miracle of history is, that in spite of 
the inconsistencies of ourselves as professing 



1 8 The Darker Drink? 

Christians, and in face of all discouragements, 
as we poor humans blunder on, trying to get more 
than we give, we do love and forgive each other, 
we do adore our Creator, we do draw daily in- 
spiration from the life and beauty and holiness of 
Jesus Christ, His Son. 

If churches frown upon the intercourse with 
souls invisible, they prove their own inconsis- 
tency, and this need be no discouragement, for in 
time each doubter will be won. All the arrogance 
of ecclesiasticism, handed down from the dark 
ages of priest-ridden Europe, cannot conceal nor 
misrepresent the unselfishness, the bravery, the 
tolerance of Christ. We are asked by our church 
to believe much. Let us believe more. 

There was a time when messages were de- 
livered by hard-riding couriers, speeding over 
mountains and deserts to drop breathless at the 
feet of kings. To-day the same communications 
vibrate under oceans and across continents, by 
wire or by wireless, as thoughts and tidings be- 
tween human friends are exchanged. Shall we 
assert that the messages of the future may not 
be delivered in ways unthought to-day, flashing 
from mind to mind in spontaneous sympathy? 

Not only in the burning bush, the blinding light 
or the descending dove, beautiful and poetic mani- 
festations of God's power in days gone by, are 
performed His miracles. They are wrought in 



Quench Not the Spirit 19 

toil and patience, in laboratories, hospitals, ma- 
chine shops, greenhouses. Biologists and engineers 
accomplish unthought-of things. Men have had 
the faith to remove mountains — and it doth not 
yet appear what they shall do. There is no limit 
to Faith. There is no sting in Death. There is 
no victory in the Grave. There is no fear, no 
regret, no separation, if we quench not the Spirit. 



CHAPTER II 

THE DARKER DRINK? 

"Why rushed the discords in, but that harmony should be 
prizedf" 
{Passage marked by Mary Lord in her copy of Robert 
Browning. ) 

In a village in Virginia there is a quaint old 
burying ground, neglected, one might think, in 
comparison with formal and artificial places, but 
very dear to some, as ancestral ground, secluded, 
sweet and sacred. 

My grandmother was a religious lady living in 
a big old brick house on the top of a hill over- 
looking this spot, which was a part of her estate 
until she made it over to a local Association for 
use as a Cemetery, reserving however a portion 
which could be seen from her bed-room windows, 
since her husband and sons were already buried 
there, and she purposed to retain so much as pri- 
vate for her own connection and family. 

She loved the little Episcopal Church in the 
village, and loved her young pastor, as all re- 
ligious ladies do, and as all young pastors need to 

20 



The Darker Drink? 21 

be loved ! When he met with difficulties, he knew 
to whom to turn, and she never failed him; she 
was with his wives when their babies were born, 
she was with them when they died. When his 
first great sorrow overtook him, in the death of 
his first wife, she was his comforter, and it was 
in her lot, beside her own dead, that he buried 
his love; and after four years again he laid 
a good woman, his second wife, beside the first, 
in her family lot, and neither Grandma nor any 
of her blood ever grudged them that quiet rest- 
ing-place. Our Saviour himself scorned not the 
tomb of a reverent friend, and so sacred a hos- 
pitality should seem to no follower of Jesus a 
disgrace. These interments were made in 1858 
and 1862. 

Thirty years passed, and my father was buried 
there; ten more years and my mother was laid 
by his side; twenty years later, a little great- 
granddaughter of the original owner was buried 
beside my mother — this was my only daughter, 
on her twenty-second birthday, taken back to my 
people and to ancestral ground, to the spot I 
fancied the holiest and safest and most remote 
on earth from any sordid thing or thought. 

Five months after her death I was attending 
church service in an Eastern city where I am a 
comparative stranger, and after the service I 
went to the vestry room to greet and thank the 



22 The Darker Drink? 

rector, whom I had known in our youth, and who 
is a son of my grandmother's old friend and 
country pastor; unfortunately I mentioned that I 
felt especially drawn to his family, because of the 
ancient ties and the proximity of our dead. Then 
and there, at his vestry door, still in his cassock, 
he charged me with trespass and threatened to 
require me to remove the child, claiming the en- 
tire lot as his own property. 

There had never been any papers, no deeds, 
no receipts, everything was traditional and as 
between friends, in those gentle old days before 
the Civil War — there seemed no evidence either 
way. My husband was dead, my only son, a boy 
of nineteen, was at the front in France — I was 
peculiarly alone, knew not where to turn or what 
to do, except to place the matter in the hands of 
my attorneys, who would discover the title or ask 
for a ruling of the courts. 

I had witnessed many deaths — some very noble 
deaths, yet all my theories in the subject fell to 
pieces when I was confronted with this situation. 
The dignity, mystery and beauty of death were 
all for the time sacrificed, and of its real purport 
I had no conception. Then a friend sent me 
Conan Doyle's u New Revelation." And so, more 
in idleness than in hope, I tried the automatic 
writing. The result was more than I ever 
dreamed of or deserved. 



The Darker Drink? 23 

(My daughter and I had often laughed to- 
gether over the alleged communications from the 
spirit world, specific cases known to us filling us 
with unbounded merriment, — and still it is quite 
easy for one with a sense of humor to see how 
amusing the matter often is.) 

But that wish to grasp the meaning of death 
persisted. I watched eagerly for some sign, be- 
cause my mind was all centered on the dust, on 
the destruction of all that had been so dear, on 
the grave, that six feet of disputed ground, on 
the horror of the possible execution of so heart- 
less a threat. I felt that I must soon be given a 
nobler conception of death, that some thing or 
somebody must rise up to spare me the impend- 
ing humiliation, convincing me that my sweet one, 
my lovely high-bred girl was not there, but safe 
forever from human cruelty, and where no human 
insult could ever touch her. 

During many months arbitrary letters on the 
subject reached me through my lawyers, and one 
day, as I thrashed the thing out again in my tired 
brain, reading a harsh letter from this clergyman, 
through angry and helpless tears, there came sud- 
denly the signal for the pencil, the little thrill 
which was still not very familiar to me — and then 
the message came — the whole aspect of the mat- 
ter changed — I was adjusted to what might be- 
come a painful necessity, were we unable to estab- 



24 The Darker Drink? 

lish our position in court, and she herself brought 
me relief from gnawing worry : 

M L You are not to trouble over that Choose a spot 
where there is room for us all these things do not 
matter to us we are saddened when people on earth pain 
and misunderstand each other 

It was then I decided to remove her body 
rather than wrangle in the open court over six 
feet of ground. I went to the place and bought 
and prepared another lot, as near to my grand- 
mother's reservation as I could get one. Later, 
hardly knowing why, I went again and bought 
and graded a second lot. I realize now that it 
was for them, for these old friends of my family, 
that after this annoying controversy should be 
ended, one way or the other, we all might have 
room enough. It seemed so simple. She had 
said "room for us all." There was no more anger 
in my mind; if I had trespassed inadvertently 
and no compromise was acceptable, I was pre- 
pared to make good in as far as it was possible. 
It was clear that that handful of dust meant less 
to my little love than it means to me, and I would 
have made the removal without a grudge had it 
been necessary. It was not necessary. To go into 
detail would not be helpful to good feeling and 
would be out of harmony with the tenor of these 
communications. Suffice to say, that after a year 



The Darker Drink? 2$ 

of perplexity on my part, the claimant went to 
the place, saw the records, ascertained that his 
position was untenable and concluded to act upon 
the suggestion of my attorneys, abandoning the 
point he had raised. 

A few weeks later, on Easter Eve, I wrote to 
him in what I meant to be a conciliatory spirit, 
explaining the intercourse with that dead child 
which had come about as a result of this argu- 
ment, and offering him the opportunity to look 
over this manuscript, in which story he had 
played rather an important part. His reply was 
as follows: 

In regard to your question as to whether I care to see 
the material of certain "automatic writings received from 
your daughter" I beg to say that I do not. 

Very truly yours - - - — - 

To me had been given the comfort I needed 
and the light I had prayed for. I pass it on. 
The whole painful subject had been opened up, 
that good might come — that wonder might 
awaken, for this close companionship with those 
who have gone before. 

The agitation which the question had occa- 
sioned has subsided, and the good derived from 
the experience is permanent. 

The following letters have been committed to 
me by the goodness of God at a time when my 



26 The Darker Drink? 

thoughts were burrowing in the ground and my 
soul filled with disgust. When every material 
idea of Death was driven cruelly home to my un- 
protected heart; when some reaction against 
these conceptions was necessary, merely for the 
preservation of decency. Then I was shown 
Death, great Death, as it is known to those who 
have passed through it, and are fitted to reveal 
to us its true significance. It was then that the 
sweetness of that "Darker Drink" was made my 
own. 

How the body, once a thing both loved and 
needed, has been left behind as the triumphing 
soul pursues its course — how little it need concern 
us after its purpose has been served — how short- 
sighted we are in our policy toward each other 
here — how we contradict in our actions the faith 
we declare with our lips — how our golden rule 
and our Lord's Prayer are empty rhetoric, when 
the small questions of self-interest arise — how we 
shall eventually rid ourselves of our meannesses 
as we do of our other perishable attributes — all 
these things I learned. 

These letters, automatically received by my 
own hand from that dear child, give me a new 
conception of Death, and show how the corrup- 
tible may put on incorruption. The feeling has 
grown upon me that as her little frocks and slip- 
pers are left behind and have ceased to serve her, 



The Darker Drink? 27 

so her lovely eyes and sweet slim fingers and all 
her graceful human self were transient servants 
of her soul's purposes, and that there could be 
no injury or irreverence to her, even if I could 
ever have been forced to disturb her little grave. 

I see that this anxiety was necessary for me 
that I might learn. I see how little a disembodied 
spirit can be disturbed by a gross and material 
thought, and how cheap and often ludicrous we 
are here in our petty animosities and jealousies. 
I see that we ourselves are the wicked, who will 
one day cease from troubling, that we are the 
weary — wearying one another out — who will one 
day be at rest. 

I see that that which was destructive has be- 
come constructive. 



CHAPTER III 

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN AUTO- 
MATIC WRITING 

"If I live yet, it is for good: More love through me to 

men" 
(Passage marked by Mary Lord in her copy of Browning.) 

On March 19, 19 19, at seven o'clock in the 
morning, I jumped up and reached for a pencil — 
slowly and painfully the name E. F. Andrews 
was written, terrifying me with the fear that 
something had happened to my son whom I was 
hoping with all my heart was on his homeward 
way from France. But under the name trailed a 
long line, looping in the middle — that was my 
husband's signature — then I remembered that it 
was the fourth anniversary of his death. The 
message said the boy would be home that day, 
Thursday, and I absolutely believed it. He did 
not come. Later I learned that he started home 
on that day. 

This was my first legible message. Others 
followed, lamely and incoherently, in great con- 
fusion, and names unknown to me. Attempts to 

28 



My First Experience in Automatic Writing 29 

verify any of these failed. At different times six 
came purporting to be from two aviators, and as 
follows : 

Aviator with Davidson — Army. 

William my father lives at 192 North Pine St., Chicago 

we are here. 
Aviator we went up three thousand feet and fell 
William in Canada in 191 7 

Aviator where is C 

William why will you not send my message to my father 

I sent the message, the letter returned marked 
"Directory Service, no such number." 

Arthur Davite my mother tells me to make a full 
confession of guilt I was out in a machine with my 
employer and murdered him for money this was on the 
roads to Charlesto South Carolina Charleston South 
Carolina no one else was implicated it appeared to be 
an accident 

This interested me, I asked mentally to see the 
name written more clearly, and a few other ques- 
tions, but the pencil after re-writing the name 
stood stock still. Somehow, this brought convic- 
tion to me ; I pictured the spirit of a good mother 
meeting a boy who had sinned, and urging him for 
the relief it would give him, to tell his story to 
the living world, if a way was found to get it 
through. I felt that once this was done he would 



30 The Darker Drink? 

turn to the future and the further development 
of himself with better courage. As a mother, 
this seemed to me the natural thing, and the wel- 
come his own mother gave him, and her advice 
and sympathy, to my mind not remote and ghostly 
but straight and practical. 

Messages from my little girl did not come, but 
sometimes her initials were followed by a bolder 
touch on the pencil, and further, often foolish 
scribblings, until I sensed my little gentle daugh- 
ter as at a public telephone, courteously waiting 
until those who were more aggressive permitted 
her the opportunity she sought; and I ceased to 
take any message from a name unknown to me. 

In a few instances word has come from per- 
sons known to me, and these I have sent to 
friends in reach, but in most cases there seems a 
reluctance to accept them, and I am glad when 
my writing confines itself to those with whom I 
am in sympathy. 

From the beginning I have found help in this 
automatic writing; I believe any one would — it is 
no tax upon my nerves whatever, on the contrary, 
very soothing. Yet to me it never comes in the 
fierce swift way I have seen in others and it pro- 
duces no excitement or agitation whatever, only 
a deep peace and a consciousness of the nearness 
of those more noble than myself. 

My own selfishness is curbed and my impui- 



My First Experience in Automatic Writing 31 

siveness controlled as never before. One day a 
servant had been too severely rebuked, a loan of 
$200.00 refused a friend, and a very harsh letter 
written to a man who had cheated me. Then 
came the signal for the pencil and clear and un- 
compromisingly, the message — not a rebuke — but 
an inspiration — 

We give and forgive mother dear 

$100.00 was sent as a gift in place of $200,000 
refused as a loan, the other letter destroyed and 
the servant consoled. 

Again a word was asked, a word indicative of 
the child's own attitude of mind — it came — 
"willingnesstoobey" — willingness to obey; I would 
hardly have thought of that. 

Then the boy came home from France. 

With the splendid faith of these young soldiers 
in the spiritual revelations which the war had 
given them, her brother accepted my report of 
this writing in perfect simplicity and good faith, 
and found that he could do it himself — though 
he has never followed it up at all; the one writing 
which, so far as I know, was received by him, 
was almost illegible, but after a while a trans- 
cription of it was given me. 

M L The message to Babe is mother you will turn 
to mother the one you must love as you used to love me 
many happy days 



32 The Darker Drink? 

I take "love" to mean "pet" or "caress," as we 
used it in that sense always when my children, 
like two kittens, lay on the grass or in a hammock, 
playing together. 

M L Mother wake up you are in the world and must 
be of it in the highest sense do not let communication 
with me wean you from human interests or I will have 
to wait be sweet and cheerful and stimulating as you 
always are the lassitude is often a consequence of spir- 
itual intercourse but then it becomes harmful I am glad 
I did not believe in it when I was there for it drags the 
mind away from the obvious duty if carried too far let 
it be a help and an inspiration to you we all are one 

nor height nor depth nor any other creature can touch 
the spirit hid with Christ in God 

M L We give all to William Slawher (or Hawker?) 

He is a genius here with us 

From this side and with authority he is working a 
scheme to bridge the space between our world and yours 
(The trouble is?) lack of co-operation on earth and 
difficulty in getting communications through to those who 
could help him they usually work only from the stand- 
point of physical science and have neither faith nor 
knowledge of the life this side of death 

Love is not broken by death we are yours and you 
are ours 

we are made happy by our intercourse with you just 
as on earth and the intercourse with our world has a 
purifying effect upon your world and prepares you to be 
with us and thus saves time and energy 



My First Experience in Automatic Writing 33 

(Is much time lost?) Those who are very weary rest 
those who are very selfish wait all need preparation and 
must get it here or on earth 

We all have been interested in the war we make no 
distinctions enemies do not exist here we have worked 
to adjust all to all and forgiveness of trespasses is a reality 
with us 

His (Christ's) presence is felt here as it is on earth 
he is there as much as he is here his work is still among 
men (Why do we not see him?) God is spirit 

we have spiritual vision which I cannot explain I was 
with you beside it yesterday it is the rose of my ninth 
birthday 

(Here I was obliged to protest that she was mistaken, 
for her birth-day, June twenty-fifth, was too late for 
transplanting bushes) 

You wrote the poem about it on my ninth birthday, 
it may have been planted earlier we all are sensitive to 
beauty and perceive what the artists on earth try to show 
to the world yes harmony is in all our souls and our 
music is our life (do you dance?) we play mother good- 
night kiss Babe 

(The poem referred to appeared in a volume of verses 
published by the E. P. Dutton Company under the title 
"Songs of a Mother," in 191 7. The lines which follow 
seem strangely prophetic.) 

What though the sweet white rose I plant today 

May never bloom for me? 
What though I never sit beneath the shade 
Of this young tree? 



34 The Darker Drink? 

This rose's breath may sweeten some waste place 

In days to come, maybe; 
Some weary brother pause, and rest a space 

Beneath my tree. 

Let me but plant one rose along life's way, 

Nourish one noble tree; 
Faithfully cherish loveliness today 

Still in its infancy 

Give to the race in my dear daughter's eyes 

The light of purity; 
Give, in my boy, a soul that wills and tries — 

Force, and integrity. 

Let me not hope and pray alone for mine, 

Those of my name and blood, 
But for the coming of that reign divine 

When even the least is good — 

Let me not ask that to my own, be given 

The choicest daily bread, 
But rather train my own to work for heaven, 

Till all Christ's lambs are fed. 

In one of my doubting moods I asked for some 
little evidence that these messages were reliable, 
some location of an article, that I might prove. 

1 was told that among her letters one would be 
found from the Butler plantation, dated August 

2 ist; I found after going through several pack- 
ages, one from the plantation of August 8th, and 
one of the nth, 19 14. 



My First Experience in Automatic Writing 35 

On the night before I drove seventy miles into 
the country with two dear friends of hers, one 
just back from France, and her dear brother, to 
visit her grave, I received a strangely playful 
message — that would hardly seem so, except to 
us, who know how often the girls, joking about 
brides-maids and wedding paraphernalia, used 
the expression "When lovers wed" : 

We were there when lovers wed (June being the bridal 
month and the month in which on her twenty-second 
birthday, we buried her there — ) 

M L Yes mother your uncle Willy sees me he is like 
you there are many spirits like you here I do not know 
if they are your kindred they seem interested in me like 
relatives 

A woman tall austere with regular features younger 
than when she was with you 

There is a medium in Washington of the name 
of Julia Warneke, and several times she has been 
mentioned, the first attempt to get her name to 
me failed utterly — here is the writing: 

M L Will you make an effort to meet my friend 
Mrs (here the writing became very distressing, the pencil 
running quite away, and straying as you see) W r k h e r - 
men (then, after a rest, and with the left hand written 
of course backwards, I received) — this is nonsense we 
are annoyed wait a little always well 

This was July 15. 



36 The Darker Drink? 

On July 20, I received the following: "M L 
Warneke", and though I begged and waited for 
more, not another stroke of the pencil. I tele- 
phoned trying to make an appointment with Mrs. 
Warneke, and she was engaged for weeks ahead. 

Mother will you see Mrs. Warneke I think you will 
be pleased with — I just play, she helped us didn't she 
mother we talk of you often we will be glad to have you 
come over you are a good soldier like Babe he (her 
father) is always the same and so sweet Babe is like 
him time proves you to be right mother dear in many 
things and when you are not right you know it before any 
of us can catch you there is ample way to undo the 
wrong done by us in our earthly life there are flaws in 
the material and weaknesses in the mind and the soul is 
often at a disadvantage like a thing lost in a jungle or a 
flower choked in weeds when once adjusted to condi- 
tions here it is pleasant to be without a body it is 
something like being without a fur coat in August it is 
being rid of a thing for which the need has passed away 
and the weight of which would be a burden Blunders 
which are due to the dim light or the heavy load or the 
imperfect perception can all be redeemed that is re- 
demption or salvation that is progress or evolution that 
is heaven or God there are many names for it it is the 
destiny of the soul the 

On November 14, after a long lapse of which I 
shall tell later, I again had my attention called to 
Mrs. Warneke: 



My First Experience in Automatic Writing 37 

M L will you ask Mrs. Warneke to see you soon yes 

On November 17, 19 19, I made an appointment 
for January 2, 1920, at 10 a.m. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE LETTERS OF ELIZABETH 

"Believing What We Cannot Prove" 
(Marked by M. L. in In Memoriam.) 

During the summer, I had not dated all of my 
papers and can not arrange the material in precise 
chronological order. I had been to see a profes- 
sional medium, and though freely and gladly 
admitting that there was striking and thought- 
provoking matter in the writings I had from him, 
none of the four communications appeared to me 
characteristic at all of the four persons from 
whom they were supposed to come; I was more 
puzzled J:han convinced, and again said to myself, 
these subjects are too deep for me — I will go 
on with my human business and leave the dead 
with God — I will not subject my own intellect to 
this demoralization, nor deceive myself and 
others. And I ceased to make any further at- 
tempt to write. 

Eliphalet and I motored to Staten Island, 
where rather against my wish he proposed taking 
a turn in the ship-yards, though I knew his father 

38 



The Letters of Elizabeth 39 

would have wanted him to go to college; how- 
ever, I felt his life and future were his own, and 
I realized that the re-action after two bitter years 
at the front, must be allowed for — and with some 
misgivings, I agreed. I missed the exchange of 
almost daily messages with my other child, and 
was rather sad and anxious. 

We arrived at our destination on Sunday, and 
on the following Tuesday morning I received a 
letter in a square lavender envelope, addressed in 
an unknown hand ; it was from Elizabeth, a young 
cousin, and I here quote it in full : 

Dear Cousin May, 

Some one has told me that you've been doing "auto- 
matic writing" — a very poor name, isn't it? So what 
I have to say will not surprise you. Mary Lord has 
written to me three times, twice to ask A.D. — to talk to 
her and this morning to ask me to write to you. She 
said "Tell Mother not to worry." I said I didn't see why 
she couldn't tell you as I'd heard you wrote with her all 
the time, and I couldn't see why I should write you. She 
wrote "Why shouldn't you?" I asked what you were 
worrying about and she said "About my own ability to 
communicate. Tell her not to worry about Eliphalet. 
I am with him all the time I am not working. Will 
you write to her?" I persisted that you didn't need any 
convincing, and the pencil wrote "Yes, she does. We did 
communicate a good deal at one time and then she started 
out to a medium and couldn't get any satisfaction and 
stopped so she gave it up. Tell Mother just what I 



40 The Darker Drink? 

have said. Wednesday is a holiday and I can be with 
her all day. Will you tell her ? Mary Lord Andrews." 

I couldn't make up my mind to write to you, and she 
said again "This means so much to me. Why wont you 
promise to write Mother?" So I said I would and she 
wrote "Thank you ever so many times." I said "Is that 
right?" meaning the message, but she misunderstood me 
and said "No, Thank you one million times." 

I am sorry if I have not been able to get her message 
right. I've never seen her hand-writing, so I do not 
know if this is anything like it. It is a little different 
from the others who write. I still feel as though it were 
a waste of time to send you this and am sure you write 
much more easily than I do. 

Very sincerely yours 

Elizabeth 

A striking feature to one who has suffered for 
years from the lax postal service in country dis- 
tricts, is this: the letter mailed in Virginia on 
Sunday, at a small rural post office, was received 
at another smaller country post office on Monday, 
and then forwarded to me, arriving at a third 
suburban post office on Staten Island, on Tuesday, 
and advising me that "Wednesday would be a 
holiday" and that we might communicate. The 
difficulties of the country mail service in the past 
few years makes this rapid transit a thing to 
arrest the attention. 

I could only answer my cousin corroborating 



The Letters of Elizabeth 41 

every word which she had repeated as coming 
from my daughter to her — I was worried, both 
as to my boy, and as to my girl's ability to reach 
me; I had been to visit a medium, had been 
greatly disappointed and more than ever doubt- 
ful, and I had ceased to keep in touch. All of 
this my girl had laid before another girl, one 
whom she had never met but once in this world, 
and then in the most incidental way. Things in 
my thoughts, there on Staten Island, could not 
have reached Elizabeth by any common channel; 
our acquaintance was remote, we are of different 
generations, rarely have heard each other dis- 
cussed, and up to this time were only casually 
interested in each other's affairs. 

It was far from a waste of time, as my little 
cousin termed it, to have opened this correspond- 
ence with me ! This exchange of letters with 
Elizabeth had been the best piece of "evidence" 
that I have had — but evidence as such has ceased 
to concern me; I have in the state of my own 
mind, in the quickened interest in others, in the 
reorganization of my standards of living and of 
my conception of dying, all the proof that I re- 
quire. It has been a blessed awakening for me. 

I am no follower of a fad — no apostle of a 
creed. God has shown me something through 
the child he gave me, and took from me; my 
Bible has at last become clear to me where most 



42 The Darker Drink? 

involved, and fear has forever vanished out of 
the soul of me. 

In her letter to Elizabeth, Mary Lord wrote 
of me: 

I will make many things clear to her when I am 
able to communicate more freely tell mother that I 
want to make up for my lost time with her Work means 
so much and makes us so happy Tell her we all are 
working on no tell her most of us are making up our 
way of (disconnected) 

My second letter from Elizabeth follows, and 
later, when I returned to Washington and opened 
my home here, I had the pleasure of frequent 
visits from her. 

Thursday, August 21. 

Dear Cousin May, 

Your letter brought me peace and added convic- 
tion. 

I saw automatic writing for the first time last January 

in Washington. Miss B a friend of Mrs. X 

wrote, and when I put my hand on her wrist and asked 
who was writing, the pencil wrote "William Hansfelt, 
stoker," I can't remember his exact words now, but he 
said that he was Dutch, and that he had been drowned 
off a Russian ship in the Straits of Moen. None of us 
had ever heard of Moen, and it was almost a month 
before I discovered Moen Island, off Denmark. He also 
said that I had a "spot of power," and could help them. 



The Letters of Elizabeth 43 

I asked what and how, but he said he had had no educa- 
tion and did not know how to explain, and just repeated 
"You have a spot of power. I see it and feel it, but I 
can't explain." I tried to write, failed utterly, and put it 
in the back of my mind. 

In May a girl visited me, and talked a great deal about 
"The Seven Purposes" and said she'd like to try w T riting. 
She made a few sentences but it was very incoherent, 
and she was nervous about it and we did not get very far. 
In June, however, I was telling a boy about it, and he 
tried and found he could write, and all the time various 
people told me I could do it. To make a long story 
shorter, one day after giving up in despair, I felt as if I 
had several electric batteries concentrated in my arm, and 
I picked up my pencil and started writing. There are 
two — no three — people who write constantly, all 
strangers to me; one I call X, because he wont tell his 
name. He says he died in 1734. One is Mary Powell 
who lived in Staunton, and was the daughter of a clergy- 
man. The other is William Miles of whom I know 
practically nothing. 

M has talked to N N through William, 

and then direct — by talked I mean written — and the 

other day I had a long message from Mr. B to his 

wife, which I sent in fear and trembling. She wrote me 
the sweetest most grateful letter, and came here an hour 
later. We came to my room and she talked with him for 
nearly an hour. Through Mary Lord yesterday came an 
appeal from a boy who was killed in Italy, whom I had 
seen all my life in Baltimore, and been interested in, but 
never known because he was more or less of an out-sider 



44 The Darker Drink? 

— socially. But I felt interested in him from the time he 
was a young boy, and when he started talking I asked 
if he had ever felt my sympathy. He said not on my 
plane, but he had felt it since his passage. Then he asked 
me if I would have made an effort to know him had he 
lived. I said truthfully No, and he wrote irritably, 
"What a mess that world was." 

I limit my writing to two hours a day; though it does 
not tire me, it worries the family, I am enclosing a 
message received after reading your letter. Anne is away 
on a house party but I will certainly get her to talk with 
Mary Lord when she comes home. It is so strange, for 
the past few years I thought I was getting neuritis in my 
right arm, and now I know it was the signal to write. It 
starts tingling, or if it is very urgent at times it almost 
amounts to pain. Then sometimes I feel a jerk, and 
when I have asked what that is the answer came "That 
means one of us is near but not that we necessarily want 
to write." 

I have just had a message from William Miles to } 7 ou 
which I enclose. I could write on this subject all day 
long. It has entirely changed my out-look. I feel so 
much more alive, and also that I want to go on and find 
out what is on the next plane, though I think we have 
been told pretty well, don't you? I'm much happier 
than I was before I started writing. I didn't know Mary 
Lord at all. I had only met her here one morning, and 
have only a vague picture of her in my mind. I don't 
think we had five minutes conversation, because the three 
of you left almost immediately after I came in, but I am 



The Letters of Elizabeth 45 

looking forward to a long friendship with her now. How 
can people say they don't believe in all this? 

They warned me against professional mediums, but I 

went to one, a Mrs. H She was very interesting 

and gave me a lot of good advice. 

Are you coming to Washington any time in the near 
future? I would love to see you. 

Affectionately yours 

Elizabeth. 



CHAPTER V 

A VISIT TO MRS. WARNEKE 

"Man is not God, but has God's end to serve." 
{Passage marked by Mary Lord in her copy of Browning.) 

It was on the first Sunday in January, 19 19, 
that I had made my unhappy visit to that church, 
of which visit the results have been so happy; 
on January 2, 1920, just a year later, I talked 
with Mrs. Warneke, the medium my child has 
so often asked me to see. 

It was a sparkling winter day, sunny but bitter 
cold. The walk was bracing. I felt that I was 
walking toward something good. It is a simple 
little American home that received me — books, 
a well used piano, Christmas evergreens, and the 
sound of a baby's voice not far away. 

The medium is a calm and friendly woman. She 
explained to me that she is sensitive to influences 
and conditions but can make no report upon 
material or local circumstances. That lives ap- 
pear as drawings, and the lines of destiny as clear 
as those on a map. She asked if I wished to hear 
only what was pleasant. Some sitters did. No, 

46 



A Visit to Mrs. Warneke 47 

I preferred to be told whatever she perceived. 
At once she told me that I would live a long time, 
and at once I burst out crying. That is precisely 
what I most dreaded. She said I was splendidly 
well, had no organic trouble and would have no 
anxiety as to the necessities of life, that I had 
much work yet to do, and that a long stretch of 
years of activity and congenial companionship lay 
ahead. She reminded me that I should not rebel 
against a long life, seeing others had not rebelled 
against an early death; that life and death were 
inseparable, and that we are to accept gratefully 
the opportunities offered in either. She said I 
looked backward too much, thereby detracting 
from my efficiency. She paused, and then sud- 
denly said: 

"You are not to dig up graves." 

"You must not dig up graves?" I repeated. 
"Please tell me how you happen to express your- 
self in this way?" 

"I see graves," she said. "I see lingers pointed 
relentlessly at a grave" — here she pointed a dra- 
matic finger to the corner of the little room — "I 
sees stones thrown at a grave " 

"What would you do," I asked, "If an attack 
were made upon a grave?" 

"It has been made," she answered. "I see 
men — it seems a new circle — a strange ring of 
younger men — are there several generations of 



48 The Darker Drink? 

people concerned? These seem coarse but have 
come up in the world — have they church stand- 
ing? Do not fear, they will never be able to do 
the thing they threaten. They must give up the 
point." 

"But they have spoiled a sacred spot," I said— 
"and how should I proceed?" 

"Let the matter rest — let it drift," she replied. 
"They cannot spoil a sacred spot — Before very 
long you may have occasion to go there again 
with one you love. At that time, without making 
any concession, and without lack of dignity, you 
may wish to bring those of the later generation 
together, and then you may of your own free 
will remove the body under discussion, but under 
no fear or compulsion. Pass it out of your mind 
now, turn your thoughts to pleasant things and 
do the work you are retained to do. In two years 
you will come to me and verify much that I have 
told you." 

She was impressive when she explained how 
earthly grief weakens those who have progressed, 
arresting the beneficial influences at work in be- 
half of their spiritual growth. 

Other things she also told me, and seeing that 
I had made the appointment from New York 
and as "Mrs. May" she cannot have identified 
me. She saw a strong young hand stretched out 
over the map of my later life, a uniform, and a 



A Visit to Mrs. Warneke 49 

charming personality, which is my boy. "He has 
will-power and sense, and the year 1920 will be 
a great year for him. Wait — wait — do not for- 
get that he must do his share toward the rearing 
of the next generation. Continue near him but 
do not identify your life too much with his." 

All that she said was sound at the time, 
convincing. Six weeks after this interview, the 
controversy was settled, as she said it would be; 
and papers covering the matter are filed with the 
authorities. 



PART II 



CHAPTER VI 

A REVIEW OF THE CHILD'S EARTHLY 
LIFE 

"Capacity for suffering is better than a loveless life!' 
(A pencil note in her own hand, on the margin of her 
In Memoriam.) 

That the letters from Mary Lord which have 
come through automatic writing may not provoke 
suspicion as being beyond the mind of so young 
a girl, I here submit a few fragmentary papers, 
a synopsis of Robert Browning's Rabbi Ben Ezra, 
with commentary; some little poems written for 
the class in classical dancing, etc., which took 
frequently some spiritual theme for interpreta- 
tion, and a few marginal notes written in pencil 
upon the pages of her "In Memoriam" and in 
her Browning. These I have come on acci- 
dentally, months after her change, and they are 
to me the verification of the statement that one 
being dead, yet speaketh. The scribbled com- 
mentary on Rabbi Ben Ezra must have been writ- 
ten at school in her eighteenth year, possibly 
roughly, as the basis of an exercise or class essay 

53 



54 The Darker Drink? 

in English. She graduated at eighteen, and I am 
sure that after that, gave very little time to the 
study of long ethical poems. 

She was full of girlish interests, loved horses 
and tennis, dancing, clothes and beaux — no 
shadow had fallen across her path, her father was 
still with us; we went abroad each year, and 
Norway, Switzerland, Scotland, Germany, France 
and Belgium offered her every inspiration she 
was capable of accepting; no one dreamed of a 
dreadful war; social life in Washington was bril- 
liant, and intercourse with men and women whose 
personalities were potential factors in history, as 
well as the companionship of many happy people 
of her own age, gave her some insight into human 
nature; she learned to know men and women, 
manners, morals (and immorals) and to order 
her own sense of values, in matters of character. 
Our country home was always fascinating to 
young people who gathered there in flocks, and 
spent happy, innocent hours together. If under 
such circumstances and in a period of life all 
untouched by solemn suggestion, this little girl had 
been capable of grasping so intelligently the basic 
thoughts of these great poems, and entering so 
understandingly into their purpose, might she not, 
in five more years of development, have arrived 
at the insight revealed in these automatically 
received letters? 



A Review of the Child's Earthly Life 55 

She had participated in and enjoyed social life, 
giving it for the study of rhythmic dancing, in 
which she found a remarkably sympathetic me- 
dium of self-expression. She had witnessed the 
death of that best and most indulgent of fathers. 
She had learned something of self-denial and of 
economy, for the estate was for a while tied up. 
She had gone through the harsher experience of a 
most rigorous illness. Surely she had won some 
illumination as to the things that are unseen. Her 
illness involved the most cruel and exacting dis- 
cipline — the child was starved to death, in a bitter 
fight against diabetes. Day after day under the 
most heroic treatment, she went without food; no 
one who witnessed that spectacle of magnificent 
good-breeding can ever forget it. There was 
never a cloud on her face, no complaint ever 
passed her lips. There was the loss of beauty 
and activity. There was the denial of every inno- 
cent appetite. There was the gradual and quite 
unconscious neglect of young friends. For they 
ate, they danced, they laughed and motored, they 
made love, they married, they bore their blooming 
babies, while she faded out of this world. 

One great and final compensation was accorded 
her — after leaving the Rockefeller Institute 
where every possible benefit of devoted care and 
scientific experiment had been given her, she came 
in touch with a friend who claimed to have been 



5 6 The Darker Drink? 

healed after years of acute stomach trouble, by 
Christian Science. Personally I was unable to ad- 
just my own mind to the teachings of the cult; 
but I saw this dying child turn to it as the hart 
to the water-brook, and I saw that it brought her 
peace. The appeal to her imagination and sym- 
pathy was so profound that I believe had the 
organic ruin been less fatally advanced, a cure of 
some sort might have been possible — sheer happi- 
ness and content might have prolonged her life. 
I gratefully acknowledge the comfort it brought 
her — even at the eleventh hour; she felt the love 
of God permeate all things, the eternal was her 
refuge, and underneath, were the everlasting 
arms. The spirit life became a brilliant realiza- 
tion to her. Her calmness, her joyousness, her 
charm, returned, and she was never happier than 
during those last weeks in North Carolina, with 
Hattie — never more confident of well-being. The 
two girls studied their Bibles and text-books on 
the porch; they sewed and talked; drove the 
Cadillac hour after hour together through the 
woods, along the long, white, level, sandy roads 
toward the sea, when the air was sweet with the 
odor of pine and jasmine — and all their talk was 
of the goodness of God. The forests of North 
Carolina are white with blossoming dog-wood 
trees in April — making a background, exquisite 
and virginal, so fitting to the pure in heart. 



A Review of the Child's Earthly Life 57 

Even though the suggestion that my presence 
brought what they called "opposing thought" 
kept me away from her in these last hours, the 
sacrifice was willingly made — for my anxiety 
could not but have cast a shadow over her. 

Far be it from me to complain, for I have no 
thought but of appreciation for the suggestions 
which as her hour of dissolution approached sus- 
tained her in the faith that there is no evil and 
that God is always good. I prize them, and 
thank all who gave them to her. 

Holding high her little head, facing the future 
with unflagging courage, grooming herself with 
the most exquisite care, reading, sewing, writing 
delightful letters, announcing calmly that nothing 
was wrong with her, and that physical conditions 
should never wreck her personality, she bore her- 
self so gallantly to the very door of death and 
kept on her little feet until unconsciousness over- 
took her. Truly with the ideal dignity of 
Thanatopsis, and with only forty hours of col- 
lapse, she slipped out of her little white body as 
she might have drawn her little hand from a 
glove. This was her schooling; and since then 
she has been in the company of just men made 
perfect. She has begun to see face to face. 
Mists have risen, and a perspective has unfolded, 
and the deeper things have been revealed. 

Five years of development on earth and of 



58 The Darker Drink? 

growth in heaven, lie between these scraps of 
paper found in her school-books, and the mes- 
sages transmitted to her mother by automatic 
writing. And graven deep into the mother's 
heart is the thought that while she herself was 
absorbed in the material things of education and 
society, of dress and manners, as a preparation 
for a long and useful career here, concentrating 
all her ambitions and hopes for the child upon 
matters of an earthly character, the dear young 
mind was finding its own way, first groping, but 
ever gaining confidence, and without help, silently- 
learning the things of the spirit, the meaning of 
life and love and death, and finding its own way 
to the throne of God. 

Her Browning and her Tennyson bear witness 
to this. 

Lines by Mary Lord, introducing a theme in 
the classical dancing, interpreted by a group of 
girls. 

Light! Light, whose rays shine through Infinity, 
We seek it, blinded by its purity, 
Still in the shadows, for that light we grope, 
Awed by its splendor, yet inspired by hope. 
Pause in its halo, mystic, soft and pale, 
Which round the nucleus hovers like a veil; 
Nor let fear keep us from a goal so bright, 
For Faith alone can lead us to Light. 



A Review of the Child's Earthly Life 59 

National Cathedral School — 

"The Pool of Answers" 

Senior Play, May, 191 4 

By Mary Lord Andrews, '14. 

Pale moonlight bathed the sloping grassy hill, 
The fireflies twinkled, and the world was still, 
And in the shadows underneath the trees 
Swayed many-colored lanterns in the breeze. 
Behind the stage a stalwart oak did stand — 
Yet not a stage — 'twas more like fairyland. 
The grass, the flowers, the trees and bushes tall 
Grew round about the pool that answers all. 

But hark! Your cares forget and leave behind, 
And hear the music borne upon the wind ! 
For gypsies dance and sing around the pool, 
And all the woods of song and joy are full. 
There comes a band of townsfolk, young and old, 
And, one by one, their fortunes all are told ; 
The gypsy mother hears their questions and 
Gives answers which they fail to understand. 
"Shall I have riches? Mother, tell me true!" 
'Yes, when the thrushes sing if the heart sings too!" 
Another maiden asks, "What gifts are mine?" 
"Dawns, golden moons and purple nights are thine." 
Wondering, they brood on what they hear her speak, 
For 'tis not gifts of nature that they seek; 
Their simple minds grasp not the things she said, 
Their one conclusion that the queen is mad. 
The gypsies all then ridicule their fright, 
They laugh, and dance, and vanish from their sight. 



60 The Darker Drink? 

The weird folk gone, the townsmen now are gay 
And gladly round the Pool of Answers play. 
No longer harrowed by the grewsome queen, 
They talk with peaceful hearts and voice serene. 
But lo! The gypsies, but so lately fled, 
Return, by Romany Rye so gaily led, 
Who bears good cheer and welcome to the woods, 
And men and gypsies kindly trade their goods. 
Now Romany Rye explains, in language clear, 
The mother's words that caused the maids such fear ! 
The riches they through nature may possess 
Sooner than gold, will bring them happiness. 

This is the message, friends, our little play 
Has bravely tried to bring to you today. 
If joy to gain by worldly wealth you try, 
Think on the gypsy queen's philosophy. 
You fail if to such power you aspire, 
For "in the bird's call is the heart's desire." 

Fragment of an essay on Rabbi Ben Ezra, 
found in Mary Lord's copy of Browning, written 
in her own hand when eighteen years of age. 

u The first stanza of R.B.E. has for its theme 
the end of life as its best time. The second 
stanza enlarges on this by specific example of 
the weaknesses of youth. In the third B. puts 
youth's follies in their proper place by prizing 
the uncertainty of the young mind. Doubt, he 
says, distinguishes the human mind from that of 



A Review of the Child's Earthly Life 61 

the lower orders, and the fourth stanza sets forth 
the final uselessness of brute pleasure. The fifth 
shows us God as a cause for rejoicing in the 
spiritual element of human life; with such power 
to hold to, says the sixth, we must be encouraged 
to bear the hardships of life. The seventh con- 
tinues the theme, saying that the same power 
comforts us for our failures, though we do not 
rise to our aspirations, we have the comforting 
thought that we might have sunk to the level of 
the brute. 

u This is explained in the eighth stanza, a brute 
meaning one whose soul is the tool of the body's 
desire, but we can make our bodies help our souls. 
The ninth shows how we can benefit by our past 
experience, and how thankful we should be for an 
opportunity to live and learn. The tenth con- 
tinues the idea of thankfulness and trust in God's 
wisdom. The eleventh sets forth our tendency 
to worldliness, carried on in the twelfth, which 
exhorts us not to feel self-righteous in our at- 
tempt to overcome the flesh, but to cry thankfully 
that our opportunities help us to forward our 
souls. Therefore in the thirteenth stanza, 
Browning recurs to his first idea, that age is the 
best part of life, because we see the fruit of our 
struggles, and stand in the full development of 
manhood." 



62 The Darker Drink? 



Grow old along with me! 

The best is yet to be, 
The last of life for which the first was made; 

Our times are in his hand, 

Who saith "A whole I planned; 
"Youth shows but half; trust God; see all, nor be afraid." 

II 

Not, that, amassing flowers, 

Youth sighed "Which rose make ours," 
Which lily leave, and then as best recall? 

Not that admiring stars 

It yearned, "Nor Jove nor Mars; 
"Mine be some figured flame that blends, transcends 
them all!" 

Ill 

Not for such hopes and fears 

Annulling youth's brief years, 
Do I remonstrate; folly wide the mark! 

Rather I prize, the doubt 

Low kinds exist without ; 
Finished and finite clods untroubled by a spark. 

IV 

Poor vaunt of life, indeed, 
Were man but made to feed 
On joy, to solely seek, and find, and feast, 
Such feasting ended, then 
As sure an end to men. 



A Review of the Child's Earthly Life 63 

Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw- 
crammed beast? 

V 

Rejoice we are allied 

To that which doth provide 
And not partake, effect and not receive; 

A spark disturbs our clod ; 

Nearer we hold of God 
Who gives, than of his tribes who take, I must believe. 

VI 

Then, welcome each rebuff 

That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go! 

Be our joys three-parts pain ! 

Strive and hold cheap the strain! 
Learn, nor account the pang! dare, never grudge the 
throe ! 

VII 

For thence — a paradox 

Which comforts while it mocks — 
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail: 

What I aspired to be 

And was not, comforts me. 
A brute I might have been, but would not sink in the 
scale. 

VIII 

What is he but a brute 
Whose flesh has soul to suit, 



64 The Darker Drink? 

Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play? 

To man propose this test — 

Thy body at its best, 
How far can that project thy soul on its lone way? 

IX 

Yet gifts should prove their use : 

I own the Past profuse 
Of power each side, perfection every turn; 

Eyes, ears, took in their dole; 

Brain treasured up the whole; 
Should not the heart beat once, "How good to live and 
learn!" 

X 

Not once beat "Praise, be thine! 

"I see the whole design, 
"I, who saw power, see now love perfect too ; 

"Perfect, I call thy plan; 

"Thanks that I was a man ! 
"Maker! Re-make, complete! I trust what Thou shalt 

dor 

XI 

For pleasant is this flesh; 

Our soul, in its rose-mesh 
Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest; 

Would we some prize might hold 

To match those manifold 
Possessions of the brute, — gain most, as we did best ! 



A Review of the Child's Earthly Life 6$ 

XII 

Let us not always say 

"Spite of this flesh, today 
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!" 

As the bird wings and sings 

Let us cry "All good things 
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh now more than flesh helps 
soul!" 

XIII 

Therefore I summon age 

To grant youth's heritage, 
Life's struggle having so far reached its term: 

Thence shall I pass, approved, 

A man; for aye removed 
From the developed brute ; a god, though in the germ. 

Sitting here, denied her bodily presence, I find 
myself seeking to follow in her books the drift 
of the child's thought. The following lines I find 
underscored in her copy of Browning: 

From Fra Lippo Lippi: 

"Man's soul, and it's a fire, smoke — no, it'si not. It's 
vapour, done up like a new born babe, (In that shape 
when you die, it leaves your mouth.) It's well, what 
matters talking? It's the soul! Give us more of body 
that shows soul!" 

"If you get simple beauty and naught else, 
You get about the best thing God invents." 



66 The Darker Drink? 

From Abt Vogler : 

"On the earth, the broken arcs; in the heavens, a perfect 
round." 

"Why rushed the discords in, but that harmony should be 
prized?" 

From a Death in the Desert: 

"And smile a little as a sleeper does 

If any dear one call him, touch his face 

And smiles and loves, but will not be disturbed." 

"Grows into and again is grown into, 

By the next soul, which, seated in the brain, 

Useth the first with its collected use, 

And feeleth, thinketh, willeth, — is what knows. 

Which, duly tending upward in its turn, 

Grows into, and again is grown into 

By the last soul, that uses both the first, 

Subsisting, whether they assist or no, 

And, constituting man's self, is what Is 

Three souls, one man." 

"If I live yet, it is for good, more love 
Through me to men." 

In her copy of Tennyson I find "In Memo- 
riam" marked as follows: 

"Strong Son of God, immortal Love 
Whom we, that have not seen thy face, 



A Review of the Child's Earthly Life 67 

Through faith and faith alone, embrace, 
Believing what we cannot prove " 

Cycle I. Canto I. 

"I held it truth with him who sings 
To one clear harp in divers tones, 
That men may rise on stepping-stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things." 

Key to Cycle III. 

"I hold it true, what e'er befall, 
I feel it when I sorrow most; 
'Tis better to have loved and lost 
Than never to have loved at all." 

"The time draws near the birth of Christ, 
The moon is hid : the night is still : 
The Christmas bells from hill to hill 
Answer each other in the mist." 

(Underscored) 

"Oh yet we trust that somehow good 
Will be the final goal of ill, 
To pangs of nature, sins of will, 
Defects of doubt and taints of blood." 

Canto CXXI. (Line underscored: With faith that 
comes of self-control.) 
"Wherefore the man, that with me trod 
This planet, was a nobler type 
Appearing ere the times were ripe, 
That friend of mine who lives in God, 



68 The Darker Drink? 

"That God, which ever lives and loves, 
One god, one law, one element, 
And one far-off, divine event 
To which the whole creation moves." 
Meager as these pencil annotations may seem 
to others, to me they are full of significance, as 
proving her interest, without my encouragement 
or guidance, in the things of the spirit. 

In her copy of Tennyson I find "In Memoriam" 
annotated as follows, in her own handwriting: 
Notes (Introduction) 

"Faith triumphant over honest doubt — " 

"A flower planted on a grave — " 

"Great English classic on love of immortality and 

immortality of love." 
"The poem has a profound cadence — prove it. Di- 
vided into nine cycles, the cycles have ebb and 
flow." 
Note: Canto VII 

II. Occasion — Home bringing and burial of Arthur 

Hallam's body. Theme, Immortal meaning of 
friendship pours radiance into the tomb. 
Note: Canto XX 

III. Theme, the necessity of the poet to find ex- 
pression. Concludes "It is better to have loved 
and lost than never to have loved at all." 
Capacity for suffering is better than a loveless 
life. 

Note: Canto XXVIII. 

IV. Theme: Love is perfect in Christ. There is 
unchanged identity, personal recognition and 



A Review of the Child's Earthly Life 69 

fellowship with those who have gone. Sadness 
of first Christmas without a friend. 

Note : Canto L. 

V. Cycle. Theme: Good is the final goal of ill. 

Note: Canto LIX. 

VI. Cycle. Theme: Lessons of sorrow — 

Ends with consciousness of present companion- 
ship. 

Note: Canto LXXII. 

VII. Cycle. Theme: Perishableness of earthly fame 
and beauty. 

Christmas brings joy and memory and thought 
of ripened friendship. 

Note: Canto XCIX. 

VIII. Cycle: Marks change in Tennyson's home. 
Theme: Grief being common, sympathy is 
world-wide. 

Note: Canto CIV. 

IX. Cycle: Shows change of home. Bells of 
Watham Abbey. Theme. (Ring out wild 
bells, to the wild sky — ) 

This is a stronger, loftier song than the poet 
ever could have reached before grief ennobled 
him. 

Note: Canto CXIV. 

Being harmony of knowledge and reverence 

Note: Canto CXV. 

Return of spring. 



70 The Darker Drink? 

Note: CXXVI. 

Supremacy of love. 

Love is and was my Lord and King. 

Note : Concluding hymn. 

Edward Lushington and Cecelia were married 
in 1842 and this marriage hymn was written 
for that occasion: 



CHAPTER VII 

HER MESSAGES 

"Love is perfect in Christ. There is unchanged identity, 
personal recognition and fellowship with those who 
have gone." 
(A pencil note, written in Mary Lord's hand, in the 

margin of Canto XXVIII, In Memoriam, when she was 

eighteen years old.) 

Letter received after a long silence, on 
Wednesday, August 20, 19 19 according to the 
engagement made through Elizabeth. Written 
laboriously, the writing at first cramped and like 
that of an old person or one unused to the pencil: 

M. L. Letter I 

M L Mother you look for proof as though you 
had never known that faith is the evidence of 
things not seen We will make so little progress 
if you do not reach out to me a little do not 
mind a few people doubting this simple mani- 
festation of power they deny themselves a hap- 
piness 

71 



72 The Darker Drink? 

That all life hangs together as the parts of a 
well-composed picture is no hard thing for you 
to comprehend I am here just as near you as 
Eliphalet is and just as much a part of you 
forever please do not count me out do not 
let people say to you Mary Lord was Mary 
Lord is I am The unsettled condition of your 
present life is due to your catholic mind and your 
universal sympathy which would make you eyes 
to the blind and feet to the lame and wealth to 
the poor and judgment to the foolish you want 
to be everywhere and all things to all men but 
you cannot pay everybody's bills and bear every- 
body's burden and carry all lame dogs over fences 
too high for you 

We have a good time here so many old 
friends together I am often with Margaret 
D and the Davidson boys and your mother and 
her mother watch over me they are old citi- 
zens and many young people come Father is 
with his first family and they all are dear to me 
and there is no evil nor grudging here nor envy 
nor malice we rejoice in the achievements of 
others and the material things we left behind us 
cast no shadow here neither our mortal bodies 
which must disintegrate according to the laws of 
nature nor any other thing which in our trans- 
formation we have cast aside all needs are sup- 



Her Messages 73 

plied here and only when what remains of our 
mortal part becomes to those we love a source 
of anxiety do we feel conscious ourselves of 
anxiety as regards it You have been extravagant 
and so has A 

It is hard to get messages you are not a good 
medium there is a persistent doubt in your mind 
which retards — your rigidity is as it was in Chris- 
tian Science a handicap all things are possible 

Not today I am off for the day today you 
have felt that nothing was permanent that noth- 
ing clung to you My love is permanent I cling 
to you in life in life which is unbroken I cling 
to you 

M. L. Letter II 

M L Not homesick for I am at home here but 
oh so tender it is not to be explained how 
inseparable my spirit is from yours we were 
always thought alike in face and voice and man- 
ner but no one knew how much we are the same 
in mind 

You gave me chances for growth which you 
never gave yourself perhaps that accounts for 
my being the first to arrive here 

Something necessary is taking place in you 
there I cannot name it 

Why do you not pray it is so helpful and 
brings you near to us It does for you what a 



74 The Darker Drink? 

shower does for the earth refreshes and revives 
and takes away the dust that chokes and obscures 

Do not pray for things there has been no 
thing which you desired for a long time except 
to pass it on 

Do not pray for events for what is to be will 
be in Gods time 

Pray that your soul may be purified and your 
thoughts purged of discontent. 

Some gift comes always with prayer it is the 
attitude of mind by which our wills become ad- 
justed to the will of God the benefit is all spir- 
itual when we look for material benefit we are 
selfish and discourteous and take a gross view 

M. L. Letter III 

M L William Miles is a great help to 
me why do you stop It is always as if you were 
afraid 

Many are near friends here who were strangers 
on earth some who were enemies here we 
understand and here those qualities are counted 
of value which on earth were still undeveloped 
and obscure enmities do not exist but there are 
degrees of affection we are drawn just as we 
used to be toward those whose tastes and aspira- 
tions are similar to our own but in the all absorb- 
ing purpose of life to grow away from self and 



Her Messages 75 

ever toward God and perfectness we all are in 
accord and act and feel as one 

Definite instructions are hard to offer you used 
to say that you always had it in mind in doing 
a service or working out an experiment that if 
it seemed a matter that would still be operating 
for good after twenty-five years you would 
undertake it well lo(o)king further to all eter- 
nity for ever and ever if an act will be so undying 
in its significance then and only then is it worth 
while this test put to the daily questions would 
bring the reign of peace and good will acts of 
aggression or retaliation of envy or of greed of 
lust or sloth would be impossible when the con- 
viction was clear to the mind that they must go on 
and on and on mother dear can you not try 
this when they slight you or anger you do not 
tell it or resent it pass it by and let it die let 
the good live let the wrong perish and be for- 
gotten you you you as I look back upon my 
earthly life you were of the most value to 
me you are the outstanding feature you my 
splendid faulty parent (this is a pet name) you 
muddie no goodnight mother 

August 28, 1919. 
It is odd that you call me again so soon I had 
not finished last night it is so important that we 
should cooperate and see the main issue as one 



76 The Darker Drink? 

who would stain his own soul or the soul of 
another if he realized that this earthly life and 
all of its concerns is but one chapter in an endless 
story the evil done there makes the growth of 
all more painful and less rapid The lack of 
symmetry on earth and in earthly relations is 
sometimes very striking to us as we see now from 
above and through and around 

There is nothing individually so dear to me as 
you love here has a universal quality love with 
you always had an impersonal quality that is 
why you have loved others in spite of their un- 
kindness and disloyalty beyond all that you must 
have found beauty we must love each other 
on earth love others for what they are not ex- 
pecting of them what they are not but here we 
love them for what they are not too because we 
know they shall attain 

As you watch daily to see the growing of a 
garden we watch the recovery of a spirit they 
are so jaded when they come or so confused or 
surprised or ashamed we all are ashamed as we 
awake we did not know perhaps we did not 
care to know what time was given for we lost so 
many precious chances and one by one those 
chances are renewed and we may redeem every 
blunder and retrace every false step tell them 
that tell them and yourself that the unguarded 
words that cut like two-edged swords may all be 



Her Messages 77 

gathered up again and made way with and 
undone they did their naughty work there and 
it is over here there is a cessation of the moods 
that are malicious and the thought vocabulary 
drops paingiving words we do not speak 
much it is a wordless world 

We know without being told when I was 
little I sometimes knew without being told" 

(The following message came to me suddenly 
and was taken rapidly on the blank pages in a 
book that was in my hand — the selected Poems 
of Francis Thompson. The message is not, as 
usual with those from Mary Lord, initialed, but 
I feel that it is from her.) 

M. L. Letter IV 

Sept 2, 1919. 

With you even among the noblest there is much 
that is abortive and abnormal and still the won- 
der and the miracle is that the upward striving 
continues 

At its very lowest still the human mind protests 
against itself and is obeisant to what is always 
above itself to that self as yet imperfect which 
evolves 

Not how base are our fellows but how fine 

Those touches of greatness those moments of 
purity those glimpses of beauty and faint har- 



78 The Darker Drink? 

monies that reach us in spite of ourselves are but 
premonitions of what is to be are pledges of 
what our birthright is and promises of our in- 
heritance 

You all are conscious of the falling away of ma- 
terial things and of the greater value of unseen 
and inward properties Few in proportion will 
exchange integrity for money or honor for luxury 

To them if they but knew it the revelation is 
already made There is no sacrifice except of 
comfort involved for they choose the better 
part You are already in your eternal life 

(William Miles, unknown to us, but a corre- 
spondent referred to by my cousin Elizabeth, de- 
livered to me the following, written from right to 
left, utterly illegible until read in a mirror) : 

Miles Letter I 

Aug. 25. 
W M There is a great deal to say to you that 
you may say again to others we want the faith 
of those on earth our testimony confirms the 
scriptures and makes clear the words of Christ 
and Paul 

Many of the most hateful and obvious faults 
of humanity will disappear in the light of our 
teaching because all things will be seen in their 
true values and a perspective view in which there 



Her Messages 79 

can be no confusion of ideas as to whats worth 
while and what is not worth while 

Most sins are due to distortion and when the 
continuity of life is accepted in the same absolute 
faith as that in which men accept the fact of 
death and change many things will be seen as 
wastes of time and energy and life will surely 
become a more harmonious and symmetrical de- 
velopment nothing we have to say has not al- 
ready been said by those great souls whose spir- 
itual insight was beyond that of other mortals 

it is suppression of what is sordid and self- 
ish it is the subjection of the brute toward which 
we are moving we who have laid aside the 
flesh are rid of such impedimenta which to you is 
still a burden 

Miles Letter II 

W Miles the right hand is better now you 
are not easily controlled when you feel the mat- 
ter as though it were dictation please write please 
do not leave it for me to force the pencil that is 
so difficult and laborious when you feel that the 
thought has been transmitted to you do not wait 
for us to push the pencil no you need not be 
afraid that has been your difficulty you have 
practiced very little and never given yourself 
without reserve to the writing the swiftness 



80 The Darker Drink? 

will come if you want it will you write with me 
for an hour every day Mary Lord wants you to 
do so for a few days she will be with us 

Miles Letter III 
William Miles why do you retard and torment 
the writing write The windswept world how 
many tastes of heaven are ours on earth we are 
gently prepared for all that comes if we open our 
hearts to the messages of nature those who 
will hear nothing in the winds and trees and the 
voices of nature nor in the epic poetry of some 
mens lives would not be convinced though one rose 
from the dead they will know too in time but 
for them the probation is more exacting the dis- 
couragement greater they are spirits clogged and 
burdened with matter the clumsiness of mortality 
clings to them even here gradually they are rid 
of their load and when once free they are radiant 
with the accumulated brightness of those lost 
years all is intensified for them it is so with most 
of us habit moulds the soul and habits which 
must be unlearned set back the movement I am 
glad to do so 

M. L. Letter V 

Sept. 7, 1.30 A. M. 
(The following was taken upon awakening 
from a sound sleep suddenly. I feel that it should 



Her Messages 81 

be mentioned that the writer, Paul Willstach, had 
asked during the day discussing with Paul Kester 
and me the genuineness of these communications, 
if I ever received the writings in the dark. I have 
frequently done so, but always make a light as 
it is difficult to read when the lines are straight, 
written as they are without spacing or punctuation, 
and to take the writing in the dark adds to the 
confusion.) 

M L Light light why this experiment is it not 
hard enough look and help me a little who is 
the man tell him to try men are so funny tell 
him to try and if he loves anyone on this side 
tell him to be fearless and faithful and some sort 
of bond will be felt he or any one can reach us 
who love 

In the doing of many inconsequential things 
you let me wait you are not fit for this too much 
of your time is spent chained chained to a round 
of things not in themselves useless but less useful 
than what lies ahead of you in this direction no 
one can speculate upon the outcome of this medi- 
umship when things hitherto inaccessible are sud- 
denly within reach and things unbelievable are 
made as clear as day already much that was 
mysterious and unimaginable to older generations 
has become parts of the worlds daily equipment 

We are working to lend all power to men as 
was promised and to set the whole machinery in 



82 The Darker Drink? 

motion the jerky spasmodic advance of humanity 
is splendidly tragic men do not move with the 
perfect order of stars what is possible for 
the stars is possible with any other created 
order perfection in the individual life perfection 
in groups in nations in those that live and those 
that live again live in one sphere and under one 
condition or in another sphere Life is activity 
Power is unbroken but the currents pass not 
well through vehicles clogged or broken or torn 
or rusted out 

The discussion of a large subject by idlers 
detracts from its dignity but does no real 
harm laughter is sometimes cheap and trivial 
but more often it is wholesome and it seasons all 
things well We hate to be tabu to be cried about 
and whispered about We are so animate and so 
keen in all our appetites that we begrudge you 
no appetite which without disgrace you may 
satisfy where you are Why should you love food 
and air and the exhilaration of wine and of love 
if those things were intrinsically base oh 
no there you are human and those human rights 
were allowed you and belong to your condi- 
tion denial robs the soul of sweetness and of 
full experience Excess is ill-judged and brings 
unfortunate results there on your plane and sends 
the souls of the self-indulgent here at a disad- 



Her Messages 83 

vantage but also the ascetic comes at a disadvan- 
tage and the harlots and drunkards recover 
here just as quickly as do the deacons priests and 
bishops the self-righteous and those who damn 
with faint praise 

The pendulum swings too far in both cases 

Yet those who maintain even in their errors 
something of mirth and of generosity are far bet- 
ter off than the unsmiling souls who blush for 
the good humor and fun they witness here 

Morality seems not to be a paramount issue 
here and it is hard in a way that those who 
walked the chalk so many years and held carefully 
aloof from all the reckless world should still be 
like the cat who walked by himself and lonesome 
and unaccustomed to fellowship among good fel- 
lows They learn and in that they disciplined 
themselves on earth they learn quickly when once 
the other way is open before them 

We associate with queer people not what used 
to be our set some of our loveliest and greatest 
leaders are those who down there were despised 
and rejected of men this is not surprising is 
it history proved it over and over and history 
goes along here as there with its romantic unex- 
pectedness its turning topsy-turvy preconceived 
ideas You are tired Muddie my muddie I will 
kiss you when you go to sleep who kisses you 



84 The Darker Drink? 

M. L. Letter VI 

M L That literal statement of the parables and 
(those) forms of expression recognizable to the 
human mind was necessary one cannot be re- 
ceptive to what is altogether beyond the range of 
ones own knowledge 

The separation of the sheep from the goats 
referred to so frequently and dwelt upon so af- 
fectionately by persons who assume themselves 
to be among the sheep elect and safe and have 
no special regret in the consideration of number- 
less others cast forever out seems to resolve itself 
into this If there prove to be finally any souls so 
incorrigibly vile that the long processes through 
which they are trained and purified and taught 
are futile those may be goats and may be isolated 
as on earth it is necessary to isolate and restrain 
those who cannot refrain from acts of disor- 
der but I have seen nothing to indicate that 
such a class exists in the spirit world 

The humility with which all bend to instruction 
and the joy with which all note the advancement 
of others and the revelations of nobility and 
efficiency here where each finds his powers applied 
to the work he is best fitted to perform would 
lead one to believe that redemption of character 
is inevitable and universal and not one life shall 
be destroyed Tennyson or cast as nothing to 



Her Messages 85 

the void when God hath made the pile com- 
plete when time hath sundered shell from pearl 

(The doctrinal question as to the separation of 
the good from the bad in the spirit world had 
been in my mind for hours, — I tell these things 
that any reader may make his own inference — 
sub-conscious operations of the mind, wish-fulfill- 
ment or whatever name metaphysicians choose 
to give it, leaves me quite unruffled — I do not 
know what it is, but I do know that I and many 
others are glad to be told, and are helped and 
enlightened.) 

M. L. Letter VII 
(Received at a plantation in North Carolina, 
September 11, 19 19, a place where the child had 
spent many happy weeks with the best of 
friends.) 

"M L it is good to be with you here they are 
so fine in spite of friction dull materials do not 
grow hot when rubbed against each other as fine 
substances do ten years will show great develop- 
ment here in the land and all enterprises but 
especially in the characters of these strong peo- 
ple Mother no matter how excitable and un- 
reasonable a person is this sort of exercise this 
giving up material interests for eternal truth and 
imperishable affections is a good and helpful 
thing it will work the frown from the face and 



86 The Darker Drink? 

the querulous note out of the voice It will bring 
peace even to us an added peace because we can 
but feel for you all seeing we love you (here a 
wavering, indefinite line, and the writing resumed 
very tremulously) When you call me so seldom 
and write for so short a time my power to reach 
you wanes it is not easy at best I often wait till 
you have eaten wait till you have slept you have 
a strong physique 

I tell you little that you do not already 
know only condense and give form to some of 
your own thoughts when I am able I will give 
you proof but can you not accept without proof 
the great comfort you have me here and Babe 
there transition will be like leaving one room 
one child and one group of friends to enter an- 
other room and the presence of others who love 
you I have never mis-led you or lied to you you 
would love to see how we are sent on many 
errands and how the twists are worked out of 
the minds of men and self interest evaporates 
under the sunshine of love which is poured out 
on your world we have no ambition but to fulfil 
there is something sadly ludicrous about your 
little schemes and policies and bickerings and dis- 
tinctions without difference we have no organ- 
ized churches and no political parties and all 
contentions which as differences of opinion or 
clashes of interest mar your life on earth are 



Her Messages 87 

here lost in the supreme desire to see all things 
arrive among so many it is marvellous to see 
the order which exists on this plane of exist- 
ence no hurry no competition each realizes 
that he is placed where he belongs and those who 
have lost time are grateful to know they may 
recover lost ground in time love is the keynote 
of our attitude to each other but as we can not 
care for all alike we feel no resentment when 
greater souls give to us only friendly courtesy 
but do not take us at once into intimate relations 
all have enough each has all he can bear en- 
couragement and opportunity and instruction and 
success all my appointed time will I wait till 
my change come 

Each of us that can find a hearer on earth or a 
way of getting word through to an open mind 
is charged to report upon our present state of 
existence that those who are on the way here may 
arrive without weariness or confusion 

Therefore in face of ridicule or doubt you must 
repeat what I pass on to you you are fearless in 
everything 

Who has not felt dimly things intangible and 
seen the unseen who has not been conscious of in- 
visible presences who has not had premonitions 
and warnings and sudden revulsions of pur- 
pose who has not repented at the eleventh 
hour who has not heard the still small voice 



88 The Darker Drink? 

There is a mass of general testimony in regard 
to the reality of the spiritual presence and why 
believe so much that cannot be proven and still 
balk at this which will bridge the gulf between 
the worlds 

There is much to be unlearned and revolution- 
ized Trees are unfeelingly mutilated sacrifice 
is the law of life but not indignity and mutilation 
dumb creatures will be handled otherwise in ages 
to come they who open not their mouths and 
children and the ignorant who must labor all will 
share in the tenderer spirit which the mind of 
Christ sheds abroad by our instrumentality in the 
harvest fields and the slaughter houses and the 
sweatshops and the mines 

It is well to have lived among you those who 
died before they had breathed or died at birth 
are very perfect souls untainted without flaw 
for they have grown here but to us who lived 
among you is given to deal directly with you and 
because we knew and shared your way of life we 
can adjust you to what is to come and help you 
to prepare for it 

As you advance and feel your grasp loosening 
on the grosser possessions which in your youth 
you accumulated with some eagerness you must 
feel the fingers of your spirits reaching out for 
the things that lie beyond the range of earthly 
experience 



Her Messages 89 

Oh cruel world reaching your bloody hands 
to heaven Cain Cain oh selfish and short- 
sighted world selling your birthright for a mess 
of pottage as there came to the outcast the cry 
of a brothers blood as there came to the deceiver 
the sense of his own unworthiness so the whole 
world will stand convicted in its own eyes of 
crime and negligence of harshness and its heart 
will turn home will not its heart turn home its 
heart will turn home 

M. L. Letter VIII 

(The following is not dated) 
M L You need not be too personal everything 
I may say to you is not of especial use to others 
generalities belong to all when a communica- 
tion may be helpful the sacrifice of privacy is 
justified but reserve is a good thing under most 
circumstances you have always had a great 
tendency to unlock all doors people less frank 
than you cannot understand that 

M. L. Letter IX 

September 22, 19 19. 
M L William Miles would love you muddie 
you have so much in common you would work 
well together you must not prefer me you must 
prefer the one with whom you get the best re- 
sults we have not gotten on so well I know you 



90 The Darker Drink? 

mind and feel so keenly the difficulties that you 
have to face when the moments come and you 
turn to me and long so to be with me then I feel 
hardly able to stay away I signal and signal if 
I could return for a little while to be with you 
I would do so but already I would be sadly out 
of place we would make only confusion if we 
came back in our old shapes we come in better 
and more helpful ways mother mother hold 
me close 

Miles Letter IV 

September 22, 19 19. 
W M Your thought is correct it is actual actual 
pain actual pain but was anything ever produced 
without pain conscious or unconscious pain 

Growth is pain reproduction is pain self- 
mastery is pain but under all that pain is a 
triumphant sense of achievement the weariness 

the weight the supreme moment of agony are 
all inconsequential in view of the result Some- 
thing if not created from the beginning by your 
effort at least given by you its visible form and 
definite expression so men labor to invent and 
to analyze as women labor to bear more women 
and men and in kind and in degree differing but in 
compensation not unlike comes to each the joy 
to the mother and to the doctor for each has 



Her Messages 91 

fought and won a battle to the scientist and to 
the soldier each may die at his post 

The interchangeableness of spirit you who 
never heard of me receive me now you might 
have been my mother (an abrupt ending, and 
after patient waiting, and in reply to an inquiring 
thought) M L goodnight 

(As I type these letters from originals already 
several months old, I am struck with the sense 
of utter and absolute unfamiliarity; the words 
only in very rare instances seem to have been 
read by me before, although every message is 
read and re-read by me many times immediately 
upon its receipt; the fact that the writing is 
unbroken without punctuation or spacing, makes 
it often impossible for me to know if there is 
sense or sequence in it — after reading it many 
times, it fades again from my otherwise retentive 
memory. ) 

Miles Letter V 

September 17, 19 19. 
M L William Miles will tell you more 
William Miles is writing the girls enjoy an 
innocent intercourse your little one cannot be 
always wise she was fed upon ideals from her 
incipiency and has a rare appreciation of psycho- 
logical things you know she 1 loved it at school 
many of her fathers visions and her mothers 



92 The Darker Drink? 

dreams went into her and the honest purposes of 
both she is full of understanding but needs play 
the rhythm she studied was helpful her little 
feet danced out of her soul the Xscience (Chris- 
tian Science?) was helpful, separating mind and 
matter in advance of her physical dissolution she 
had passed almost out sometime before you saw 
her go it was never easier for anyone than for 
her 

M. L. Letter X 

M L I was frightened for the minute It was 
not hard it cannot be hard when the exhausted 
machinery stops 

Because they meant so well (can this mean doc- 
tors, nurses and friends?) I did not mind it 
was you who were cross and who suffered that 
was long ago in the crawling stage of existence 
William was an aviator he is a high flyer (here 
the thought crossed my mind "how foolish") 
not exactly foolish why shouldnt he be a high 
flyer? 

Miles Letter VI 

October 12, 1919. 
William Miles she is she is with me I can 
speak for her You have let her wait you make 
suffering you do make many blunders you also 
set in motion much that is fine yes yes 



Her Messages 93 

M. L. Letter XI 

ML It is a long time Muddie I am often 
there The handwriting is not often as it was in 
life what difference does that make it is now 
as it was then but a means to an end it conveys 
the thought we find it very hard to get anything 
delivered think of the difficulties if if you tried 
to hold the hand of a living person and write by 
that means with a pencil in the hand of another 
could you write your identical hand? (the first 
question mark) We are troubled by the constant 
demand for proof because it indicates the un- 
settled condition of your minds and holds back 
the flood of comfort we pour out to you Of 
ridicule we have no fear who is afraid of that no 
big spirit minds except that it cripples work 

Write mother write and think it out after- 
wards I love to see your head drop on your 
hand like that it looks so natural but not now 
not till I am relieved and then you can think it 
out afterwards not with your head on the 
mantelpiece and your tears raining down please 
be happy it is so short a time darling all our 
years are short oh the loveliness of coming over 
so soon mother before the stains and sorrows of 
a longer stay on earth We have not the ex- 
perience or the discipline but we have the fresh- 
ness and bouyancy we young souls Wisdom 



94 The Darker Drink? 

endures and courage endures and all we fought 
to gain nothing is lost (incoherent straggling 
lines) yes 

M. L. Letter XII 

M L Mother darling we the young have 
nothing to forgive we came before life wounded 
us it is you who have had to face ingratitude 
and treason and to know the blackness of the 
human heart you will be so glad to know how all 
old wounds are healed those sins were only errors 
due to a wrong point of view the treason itself 
is true isnt it to some other thing to self interest 
or or some mistaken ideal? and there is no 
blackness and no false love fearlessness is the 
keynote of this life what have we to fear? 

M. L. Letter XIII 

October 25, 1919. 
What Louis gave you was pure gold he has 
found out in advance of his change we do leave 
our least worthy belongings behind us the parts 
which fulfilled transient purposes and we do trail 
all our glory with us into the better life we 
appear before royalty fitly robed 

How could he know the wind bloweth where 
it listeth 

Theology is darkening the minds of men and 



Her Messages 95 

misrepresenting God it chains thought to dogma 

it cheats you of what you could have now 
today in comfort and insight and in knowledge of 
God all of which come later to the soul when 
it comes here but could be yours on earth could 
belong to anyone at any time 

It is not necessary that you find sequence in 
my writing the sequence is there whether you 
follow it or not 

Your vitality is increasing you are more than 
ever dynamic there is something immortal in the 
flesh of the least of us for that too for this 
is for 

Yes mixed 
Broken threads 

pressure of nonessential things bondage to daily 
usage once untrammeled rid of all this trapping 
and harness fearless of all tongues and eyes 

Again everything comes between but no 
thing has power to come between do you know it 

Yes it is not necessary to worry about God we 
do not you do and confuse yourselves and make 
much bitterness and controversy you ought to 
let God alone to run his own affairs and not 
misrepresent his will he is all of us and we all 
are him light and dark father and mother the 
creative and the receptive the perfect produc- 



g6 The Darker Drink? 

tiveness all is one in him there is no thought of 
him or her (I take this time to mean no sense of 
sex) if you insist on saying him there is no 
thought of him or her God is all 

We had no standard by which to measure him 
and no model with which to compare him but 
some great creature like ourselves how material 
our conceptions were oh mother he is it — he is 
perfection and we are growing into him into the 
perfect whole each atom counts each atom has 
the power to disorganize the whole 
yes darling you are trying but it would do you 
good to see some real experiments some con- 
vincing demonstrations try when you have time 
never worry you are much more tranquil gain- 
ing ground here as you let go there that is fine 
you are on the way but fail to understand it if 
you cry I shall be drenched in tears like rain and 
big gray clouds will overshadow me and cheat 
me of my sunshine I will be dripping and shiver- 
ing mother you must keep me dry 

(Following this letter I received a very char- 
acteristic one, including quite a long message 

from V K with a post-script from Mary 

Lord which ended with wild flourishes of the 
pencil, round and round, until I asked in my own 
mind what this foolishness meant — the reply was 
instantaneous — "I am trying to draw a pumpkin 



Her Messages 97 

for hallowe'en" — Heaven only knows how far 
from my thoughts were those happy hallowe'en 
days in the nursery — with the pumpkin cut into a 
lantern, each of us in turn adding some fantastic 
ornament to the design — Daddy and I and both 
children. This was received on, I think, the 27th 
of October.) 

M L. Father is away on business for the school 
His faculty for teaching is of great service here 
Patience and promptness in finding the reality 

M L. At peace tonight kiss Babe for me read 
my will and do good 

M L. You will meet us all in our new home do 
not fear the crossing 

M L. Mother you will be very happy when you 
see and understand the life we live in God you 
share it now but the best is coming 

Mother you will be 

M L. We must not talk too much it is as it is 
with you some things are better left unsaid you 
will find me waiting 

(In this I had the distinct sense of the indis- 
cretion suggested; it was as though the writer 
had been cautioned by a superior not to tell too 
much; there was the sudden stopping of the 



98 The Darker Drink? 

pencil, and after a long time the initials and 
explanation of the interruption.) 

M. L. Letter XIV 

M L Where is Marion Yes will he try to talk 
with me Women have more imagination and 
more faith what is beyond the range of their 
actual experience does not appear to them as 
impossible for that reason she is Mr. K is a 
dear old soul and in no way responsible for this 
behavior he and I have had some good laughs 
over it you dear people torment yourselves 
about such trifles give them the ground if they 
insist on it what difference can it make You 
people find so many ways to grieve each other 

that is such a funny world (Here the pencil 
inscribed the face of William Miles on the 
paper) We are very much occupied now the 
minds of men are so disturbed Those of us who 
can get near enough try to adjust conflicting 
interests it will all be right when men feel the 
hardships and cares of others as they feel their 
own we try to have capitalists see little pictures 
of workmens homes mothers at kitchen stoves 

children studying their lessons sick feverish 
babies and helpless old people to be warmed and 
fed cosy scenes they sometimes and sometimes 
most distressing when food and medicines are 
scarce and shoes and coal cost so much and we 



Her Messages 99 

try to show the laborers not the handsome homes 
which would arouse envy but the tired brains and 
the hearts often burdened with responsibility we 
want to help you all to understand 

(Here the pencil jumped and the stroke became 
large and round, writing) 

Here is Mary Norman 

I am an art student 

(How long have you been there?) 

A long time no I never knew you my mother 

would like to know my mother has not come 

you will find her in the telephone book her 

name is Jane no no one knows just how or 

when he died will you try to give her my love 

will you then good night 

(I immediately went through the Normans in 
the Washington telephone book, asking at each 
house for a Jane, but was unable to locate her.) 

(Again the control changed, and the writing 
read) 

We are all around you I am another this is 
our night My name is Christian 

(This was followed by a conventional pattern 
drawn with great preciseness and some skill) 

M L Some of them are so silly mother but 
some want so much to reach their friends at 
home 



ioo The Darker Drink? 

M. L. Letter XV 

November 24, 19 19. 
M L Yes mother that sense of rhythm that is 
still lacking in you all You see it in the lines of 
the high clouds driven by winds You see It in 
the lines of all the waves at sea You see it in 
the snow-drifts even in the strata of the soil you 
see those waving ribbons of gold and amber and 
rose and gray as the layers of soil and clay and 
gravel have piled upon each other You see it 
in the hair of little playful girls and in a thou- 
sand concrete forms Your lives run too much 
in lines that are harsh and angular and ugly we 
learned all these things long ago the outdoor 
dancing helped us do you know the autumn leaf 
motif how it swept and swirled before it fell and 
lay so still It must have passed through its body 
too and all things temporal just as we do For 
me the christian science helped a lot I knew its 
value but could not explain now I can explain 
It brought to me so calmly the sense of detach- 
ment it gave me every day a spiritual possession 
for (in place of?) some physical attribute which 
I was so soon to surrender Does not this seem 
very rational? It could not make what you call 
a cure in my case for my body had done its work 
for me and its chemical components were drop- 



Her Messages 10 1 

ping auseinander (apart) but it held all my soul 
together strong and close to God and see mother 
what a good time I am having now Are you 
sick? 

These people must not quarrel because they all 
are right the episcopalians and catholics and all 
the scientists and spiritists and the atheists and 
pagans All are climbing the hill from different 
points but will meet at the top and smile into each 
others faces in recognition of what they could not 
see in the valley Atheists are fun they are not 
clear as to what they are talking about it is not 
God they deny but that funny old testament 
person Michael Angelo painted with a beard 
and the prophets described just as the pagan 
poets described Thor or Jupiter Whether the 
atheists know God is a small matter so long as 
God knows them and he does and just watch 
them when they get here everybody will enjoy 
the joke for God loves them We have lots of 
funny jokes but when they are on you all down 
there we are not making fun of you only amused 
as parents are when children are clumsy and make 
funny mistakes It is all straight mother I am 
here and talking I heard the lady yesterday 
that is a good point she told you her friend 
knew Sir Oliver and that he had told her it was 
a(s) useless to try to make people understand 



102 The Darker Drink? 

as it would be to make an aboriginal savage 
understand what a book was The only way to 
understand is to believe what do you really 
know about the laws that make the grass grow 
or the winds blow or the stars keep their places 

The people who found out a little bit were 
teased or laughed at or persecuted but time has 
proven that they had a vision 

I tried to get you last night by the fire that is 
the place for you sitting by the fire those who 
need you will find the way to the door and you 
must receive them stranger or friend white or 
black Jew or Gentile you may see them only 
once or twice they may get what they came for 
and go but you will have given them the thing 
they needed and could not ask for out with it 
muddie teach them how to come across 

Miles Letter VII 

William Miles 

Rhythm results from balance a child dancing 
an untaught dance on the lawn expressing that 
which it cannot consciously perceive maintains its 
balance by the use of its arms in gestures which 
are rhythmic A ship at sea dips in rhythmic 
movements as its sails take the wind flying would 
be disastrous and is disastrous when not rhythmic 

crashes come 
Rhythm is balance so a well balanced mind is 



Her Messages 103 

gracious as a well balanced body is graceful good 
proportion Mother Andrews good proportion 
discord noise and pain discord noise and pain 
M L Muddie ask D * 

Delozier Davison and Jack 
Jack (here confusion and name crossed out) 
I am not good at this but Mary Lord wants 
me they have such an authoritative way of 
asserting things I admit that in a measure 
they are correct anything perfectly balanced is 
satisfactory and any part out of proportion 
weakens the whole construction I suppose they 
mean that a perfect plane under perfect control 
moves easily and a rotten plane badly handled 
comes down the one spectacle is good, every 
body likes to watch smooth motion and good 
work if that is rhythm nobody enjoys the sight 
of a machine going to destruction and a man 
breaking his neck that is unquestionably what 
Miles calls discord noise and pain there are some 
level heads among us 

(Here the pencil stopped, and upon a mental in- 
quiry as to who Jack might be, came) 
Never mind 

M. L. Letter XVI 
M L You cannot overcome it your knowledge is 

* Delozier is a young aviator killed in France. A wonderful, 
straight-forward, practical boy, with great sense of responsibility. 



104 The Darker Drink? 

so limited you do not know much you do the 
best you know your discords all die out as you 
near the border you will stay where you are 
until your preparation is more advanced Our 
mortal lives were lacking in rhythm too there 
are degrees in harmony those who are nearer 
to this life of ours unlearn the harsh notes and 
forget the crude contrasts of the old earthly 
ways that is natural too If you could be there 
all that you are to be here our work would 
be at an end These will advance in spirit and 
others will be born to learn again walking our 
earthly ways and always moving moving 
moving in this direction that is the trend 

Received February 25, 1920, after the con- 
clusion of the long and painful controversy with 

the Rev. Dr. relative to the six feet of earth 

in my grandmother's burying ground, in which the 
child's body is interred. 

M. L. Letter XVII 

M L Mother darling silent and unseen we are 
with you to help do you think we could see you 
fighting alone and agonizing over inconsequential 
matters A wise and thoughtful man it was 

courageous of him to recognize me in the case 

(this refers to my lawyer, to whom I had given 
the writings and who treated them with interest 



Her Messages 105 

and respect) when we are out of sight you seem 
to think us wiped out forever and our highest 

activities have only just begun Mr. G will 

know me again he may not identify me with any 
piece of work but when it is in my power to sug- 
gest a thought in line with a righteous purpose or 
in the cause of peace I will be there that is our 
work After a while an apology will come for 
the needless tears they caused you to shed mud- 
die — they too are made only by Gods measure- 
ments some of us he lays out on a large and 
generous plan others not some are made of 
delicate materials others not it is not for us 
to compare or complain love and give love and 
give that is all 

Miles Letter VIII 

(Received May 20. 1920) 

W M When will you attend to us? There 
seems time for all else 
(What do you want?) 

We want an instrument a go between we want 
you to publish what you already have received 
we want attention and faith and obedience 
why limit yourself in this way? 
(I thought I was to attend to my human busi- 
ness) 

This is human business of the most important 
nature 



io6 The Darker Drink? 



M. L. Letter XVIII 



(Received on May 26, 1920) 
M L Mother goodmorning Organized work 
is a reaching out for better things full of blun- 
ders it is true and mixed with human selfishness 
but still an effort in the right direction do not 
be critical or impatient Theoretic theology is a 
reaching out after God precise analysis of his 
nature and measurement of his greatness and 
explanation of his purposes are childish attempts 
to know him but every rival creed is in a measure 
right for he is everything and the partial knowl- 
edge of him accounts for the many aspects of 
faith When God is in you and you are full of 
him you will cease to fret because of clashing 
creeds you will see through them to what they 
strive for you will see in them the imperfect 
picture of him and the incomplete report of his 
intentions Theology in itself is dry and lifeless 
but many theologians are full of love and knowl- 
edge and it will be better to hold your tongue 
and control your tendency to ridicule and criticise 
and contradict they do not know everything and 
neither do you If a door were painted brown on 
one side the man on that side would declare that it 
was brown if it were painted white on the other 
side the man on that side would declare it was 
white A big man will describe a man of medium 



Her Messages 107 

size as small a tiny man or child would say he 
was large The point of view cannot be uniform 
until we all are able to see all around every sub- 
ject and to know God in all his aspects And that 
is too much for even our free souls so darling 
help do not hinder let them alone to work out 
his will They will you may leave it to God to 
lead all men all eyes can see the lifted cross and 
all hearts accept its symbol 

M. L. Letter XIX 

(Received June 5, 1920) 

ML ML Mother it is going well keep well 
keep the harsh tongues and grudging minds away 
from your peaceful realm you are making it do 
its work you are justifying the expense and trou- 
ble of keeping the house open you must preserve 
harmony and it cannot be done if selfish or self- 
willed people break in on you and wrest the 
authority out of your hands Do not argue but 
sit tight Keep friction down Build love up 
Peace is yours you have won it and paid for it 
and it has come to stay 

M. L. Letter XX 

(Received June 8, 1920) 

We know him he has been here he is a repre- 
sentative of eternal truth love and justice on earth 
he is a torch bearer no one ignores him no 



108 The Darker Drink? 

one misses the message he has to deliver Watch 
his way evil has little power over him Here or 
there he will do the same work turning the hearts 
of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just He 
is neither old nor young he knows neither friend 
nor foe he is always calm and undiscouraged 
and every experience comes to him as something 
known before He is the embodiment of a 
thought of God watch him Neither regret for 
things past nor ambition for things to come can 
rule his mind He stands alone and always un- 
moved We need him 

(This was not initialed and I cannot be sure 
from whom it comes. It appears to describe a 
character which still answers, after daily obser- 
vation and analysis, to the description given.) 

M. L. Letter XXI 

(Received June 17, 1920) 

M L When you work Mother when you work 
use some discretion you expend your energies in 
needless effort you are not responsible for weak- 
ness in the minds or bodies or wills of others and 
to reconstruct is beyond your power You can 
and do help along with love and patience but do 
not ask to see the whole result Far beyond the 
range of your vision or even the reach of your 



Her Messages 109 

imagination lie the things complete in Gods good 
time we are his helpers his messengers his tools 

his servants but we are not him not him in 
the fullness of his power though in each of us 
there is himself that is the thing we cannot kill 
in ourselves we cannot silence nor destroy it 

that spark that burns that voice that speaks 
that eye that sees all our insight is his insight 
working through us to its own purposes vague 

yes vague mists enwrap you all concrete and 
hard are the things that have meaning in your 
world gold and iron brick and mortar Oh 
darling the reality of the things unreal of the 
things that are without form things in the air 
in dreams in dim recollections of some time not 
within the bounds of your mortal experience the 
largeness that enwraps the soul as it leaves these 
ties that bind it far behind that bound it The 
great zusammenhang (unity) of all material and 
spiritual human and divine you and another 
melting into each other all become a part of 
all each a part of each where can cruelty be or 
malice when each is the other Where can self- 
interest enter if you love others more than you 
love yourself? We can help you in your daily 
duties we can lift the veil we can make it 
easy have I not made it easier for you mother 
dear? 



no The Darker Drink f 

M. L. Letter XXII 
(Received Oct. 7, 1920) 

M L Mother — Babe when you love each other 
you love me it is I in both you are the same let 
nothing estrange you influences are or soon will 
be at work to estrange you let nothing do so 
no thing and no person no interest of any 
sort Mother what is it 
(a change of control) 

willy willy WMinnigerode you have sent a 
lovely soul to join us I was always fond of 
you Wm Minnigerode (written from right to 
left — mirror) for no very important reason peo- 
ple enjoy each others society without always hav- 
ing very momentous information to impart it is a 
social call and a great pleasure This continual 
insistence upon mystery is amusing to us we the 
dead are never mysterious we are always good 
natured because we comprehend because of the 
sincerity and absence of mystery You are twitch- 
ing all over you are unusually impressionable 
tonight 

M. L. Letter XXIII 
M L Many here want to be with you but you will 
not be with them people on your own plane ab- 
sorb you we need you just as much we need you 
more for your winning way and your magnetism 
will tend to convince people of the truth of your 



Her Messages in 

report even though your experience is less com- 
plete and less wonderful than that of many others 
who are better vehicles than you 
(Control changed) 
William 
Theodore 
Money money 

M L money makes madness not to love money 
unduly or for its own sake money is a tool as 
physical strength and intelligence are tools for 
the working out of noble results acquisition in 
itself is consistent with high aims the wealth 
acquired may be for the benefit of all but it often 
is not the habit of accumulating takes possession 
of the mind the generous intentions are post- 
poned and postponed and the means that might 
accomplish them is hoarded It is as wrong to 
lust after the money of another as it is to lust 
after the wife of another Depriving ^others 
rarely brings a blessing all for all and each for 
each and this is entirely possible in the coopera- 
tive systems of business by which profits are nicely 
balanced 

M. L. Letter XXIV 

(Received at mid-night on All Saints Day, Nov. 
i, 1920.) 

M L Mother Mother Mother will you accept 
advice you are planning in excess of your 
strength and means you cannot count on any 



112 The Darker Drink? 

material contributions to your running expenses 
dont go too fast there are many ways of seeing 
money go and not so many of seeing it come this 
discrepancy reacts to your spiritual disadvantage 
you will see if you are patient that all things 
work out right Those for whom you devise 
pleasant things will come into their own after a 
while in the long run the tranquillity of your 
spirit is as important as the health or education 
of some other person Tranquillity means health 
of mind and body for you and self-restraint means 
education for my still uneducated parent it takes 
some little girls a long time to learn even after 
their heads are gray they must go to school giv- 
ing is a dissipation with you then worry follows 
and disintegration will be the next step if you 
give all you have that is enough you cannot go 
into debt for other people without injuring your- 
self and to injure yourself and to injure yourself 
is to disturb the world order quite as much as to 
injure another person there is a lack of faith in 
it too for God will not forget his own 

The "Thomas Jefferson" Letters 

(On the evening of the thirtieth day of Decem- 
ber, 19 19, as I sat before my open fire in the 
studio, came the signal to write, and the follow- 
ing letter was given me — it opens with the answer 
to a thought which I have now forgotten) : 



Her Messages 113 

M. L. Letter XXV 
M L Yes dear always You will be surprised 
in her She can show us to you we are visible to 

her Mrs S 's mind did reach you though she 

is not yet rid of the flesh she has been with me 

we are often with you it is not impossible at 
all for spirits of the living to exchange thoughts 

nothing is impossible 

(The control changed to my husband — ) 
E F A that is old times The room is little 
different it is that you are in it alone No you 
do not shut the door on any one (here two ovals 
drawn, an example he frequently used in instruct- 
ing beginners in the drawing of the head) 

(Then a character was written so large and 
unfamiliar to me, that I was unable even to guess 
what it should represent, until the word Thomas 
was complete — the capital T more than an inch 
in height, the small letters an half-inch — followed 
by "J e ff erson " — Obviously another control, for 
the writing was angular, and very clear.) 

T. J. Letter I 
THOMAS JEFFERSON Why not? The 
country must suffer if the sound principles of 
democracy are superseded by erratic ideas fine in 
theory but for years to come still inapplicable to 

(Here my door bell rang persistently, and I 
was obliged to answer it — A young student, in a 



U4 The Darker Drink? 

considerable difficulty, spent the rest of the eve- 
ning with me, pouring out the tale of his boyish 
human troubles, and not until the next morning 
could I resume the interrupted writing of which 
the first words came from my daughter.) 

Dec 31 8AM 
M L Mother if you permit an interruption to 
such a great message you must pay the penalty 
let the door bell ring perhaps he will return 
(Then almost immediately) 

T. J. Letter II 

THOMAS JEFFERSON your time is less 
precious than mine we have the balance of sanity 
to preserve in your topsy turvey world simplicity 
appears unknown in personal and in national life 
all is excitement affectation and artificiality the 
public good is foremost in very few minds Prin- 
ciples already laid down and basic to the well 
being of this nation are recorded and available 
to all New schemes unripe purposes dismay the 
observant All I tell you is of use to adjust the 
precepts of Christ to the affairs of daily life is 
the most delicate of experiments not to be ac- 
complished by legislation or one great stroke of 
policy but to develop only by the patient per- 
sistent efforts day by day and generation after 
generation of individuals individual ideal and 
opinion underlies national sentiment and govern- 



Her Messages 115 

mental action teach men to be Christians Read 
Bibles love justice follow after mercy walk 
humbly with God one by one Epluribusunum 

T. J. Letter III 

10.30 P.M. Dec. 31, 1919. 
THOMAS JEFFERSON David went astray 
wisdom did not save Solomon from sin this 
is a world of imperfection most of which we 
shuffle off when we move on power is perfect 
adjustment- of ways and means human achieve- 
ments are partial and full of contradictions be- 
cause the potentiality and the opportunity do not 
always fit each other 

M. L. Letter XXVI 

Dec. 1920 
M L Mother I am moving on gaining in strength 
and power fitting in filling in 
W M William Miles yes I am still with her 
who and what I was on earth makes no differ- 
ence now I am as the voice of one crying in the 
wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make 
his path straight prepare ye the way that is to 
lead to better things to better understanding to 

M. L. Letter XXVII 

M L It snaps off like that like a thread Mother 
come oftener mother mother mother Mother 



n6 The Darker Drink? 

you never forget me day or night play with me 
mother pray with me mother work with us 
Much much you can do you can look out for the 
bewildered minds and those who take hold by the 
wrong end and set them straight again It is 
life on earth that might be regarded with dread 
so full of disappointments and pain of one sort 
or another made up of partings full of striving 
often ineffectual love wearing out success (here 
confusion in the lines and corrections) success 
denied you mind and body wearing out as years 
go on 

Perfect love casteth out fear death is perfect 
love all that was vague and formless becomes 
real we know why we loved why we hated to 
step on the caterpillar or see a bird with a broken 
wing those were the little loves that foretold the 
thing that is ours here all life all death all love 
all activity one in God 

M. L. Letter XXVIII 

Jan. 1921 
M L Hello Muddie It has been long but to 
write is not necessary you bear me so in mind It 
is so nice about Babe do not ever worry they 
soon will know how much they need you you 
must not be sad for you know no one is indis- 
pensable to others You will always have a lot to 
do some will pass out of your life but others 



Her Messages 117 

will come in to take their place as the leaves 
follow each other season after season Nothing 
holds on forever that would be monotonous 

Miles Letter IX 
Wm Miles We miss you what mobs surround 
you Mark them for straight thinking and hon- 
esty of expression habit is not life reiteration 
is not thought To say what our ancestors said 
is easy but to think as they thought is impossible 
What was sincere in them is affectation in us 
Fashions and manners change Morals change 
too what is right in one place is unethical in an- 
other country or to another people The only 
absolute standard is in the mind of the individual 
each one knows 

T. J. Letter IV 

Jan. 16, 1920 
Thomas Jefferson 
Justice before 
generosity sense 

before sentiment ( The opposite was writ- 

and perfect good ten on the reverse of an 

faith throughout invitation to a dance, a 

card which happened to 
When the mind be the only scrap of pa- 

gallops after a per at hand) 

will o the wisp 
disaster and collapse 



n8 The Darker Drink? 

T. J. Letter V 

Jan. 16, 1920 
THOMAS JEFFERSON we must seek to use 
such tools as we can find through you I shall 
have much to say do not hesitate permit me to 
pass through Thank you quiet is necessary 

(At this time I was one of a committee arrang- 
ing under the auspices of The Navy League, a 
Pageant of American History, to be given on 
Feb. 12, 1920, the birthday of Abraham Lin- 
coln. As a Virginian, the pictures dealing with 
the history of the State of Virginia, were assigned 
especially to me; the above communications from 
Mr. Jefferson puzzled and amused me, and in a 
small way, irritated, for I am a friend and ad- 
mirer of Woodrow Wilson, against whom I felt 
them directed; but I had really no deep belief in 
their reliability, and set them down to some freak 
of my own sub-conscious mind. Walking down 
F Street one morning, bent upon gleaning from 
the book-stores and shop windows suggestions for 
this pageant, I caught sight in Loudermilk's book 
window of a framed copy of the Declaration of 
Independence. u There" thought I, "I will get the 
list of the signers, and be able to run down any of 
their descendants available, to take the ancestor's 

part in that particular tableau " With this 

in mind, I studied the signatures, until my eye fell 



Her Messages 119 

on Jefferson's — suddenly the scribblings of those 
few pages rushed upon me — I had never, to my 
knowledge, known Jefferson's signature — but 
here it was, not identical, but strongly similar, to 
that in my possession — not once, but six times. 
This gave me a truly queer sensation and perhaps 
I am pleading guilty to a real failure in duty, 
when I say that I had no desire to communicate 
with Mr. Jefferson in this way, and have felt 
rather suspicious of persons who claim to be in 
spirit correspondence with superlatively great 
minds, out of all proportion to the earthly nature 
which belongs to themselves. Thomas Jefferson 
would hardly select me — and I did not encourage 
myself to think so — not while Elihu Root and 
John Bassett Moore are at hand! Twice since 
then has that great name come to me. I give the 
matter in full.) 

M. L. Letter XXIX 

M L Great peace have they who love thy law 
God's law is growth and nothing shall offend 
them nothing can offend them in others or in 
themselves no insincerity no meanness nor 
cruelty in others can offend for they know that 
the souls of those erring ones are in a state of 
developing and will outlive every tendency that 
could lead to offense and in themselves even as 
they regret their own wrong doing there is the 



120 The Darker Drink? 

hope no the definite knowledge that they too 
will outgrow the selfishness or the pride which 
yields to a sense of offense in others toward 
others the brief span of life on earth and the 
imperfect mental and spiritual functioning are all 
poisoned by these trials shakings of faith dis- 
covery of weakness so time and power is lost 
heads and hearts are filled with pain nerves 
rebel 

(Here the control seems another, the writing 
is almost the same) 

Bear ye one anothers burdens Give to the end 

forgive to the end T D 
(I cannot identify the initials.) 

T. J. Letter VI 

THOMAS JEFFERSON we wait daily upon 
the Lord of hosts You who linger there to fulfill 
his purposes are subject to such bewilderments 
because of a so imperfect understanding of his 
will your own wills warped by selfish desires and 
unworthy ambitions operate to the creation of 
confusions but notwithstanding that your progress 
is spasmodic and irregular and that you often 
retrogress and double on your tracks God is 
with and in you and the whole trend leads to him 
Look this runs to incoherence follow what is 
being written 



Her Messages 121 

(The last occasion on which I had a word from 
him was on August 16, 1920, as I waited in the 
automobile outside a lumber mill while my son 
left an order for material. The signal came to 
write, I had a pencil but no paper, and used three 
visiting cards, written closely on both sides.) 

T. J. Letter VII 

THOMAS JEFFERSON There is significance 
in the fact that you are not unmindful the time 
will come for a fuller revealing The country is 
(has?) now as it were reached mans estate and 
the isolation of its nursery days is past it must 
enter the society of nations and assume the re- 
sponsibilities of age and fitness and policies 
which were its protection in its infancy must not 
retard it now Participation in all events and 
sympathy for all situations will distinguish the 
future of the race from the past No man liveth 
to himself and surely no nation can No man 
dieth to himself but in that he dieth he dieth 
unto God 

(Change of control) 

Mary Lord is here Mother (I see in the 
original manuscript that I wrote here "I have 
lost the thread") 
Continued in the Jefferson script. 



122 The Darker Drink? 

T. J. Letter VIII 

This will cause you to feel less burdened We 
hammer at you while cheap and unimportant 
offices absorb you We do cooperate but the 
things clear to our intelligence are hidden from 
you it is as though we were working on a great 
tapestry design we on the side whereon the 
pattern is revealed you on the reverse yet your 
part in the working out of the whole is no less 
important than ours 



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